Get up quietly in the early hours
just to see first light again.
Wash, put on old clothes. Coffee
and then life before the open window.

The seagulls wheel around some bread.
The children add a few more years asleep.
The pigeon's in the gutter every day.
The clouds appear to actually sail.

While I'm writing all this down,
seeing no other question besides looking,
slowly the house begins to move.
Just looking is never enough.

Translation: Willem Groenewegen