It must have been visible:
the execution of the sentence upon us,
slowly now, still not completed.
We soon shrivelled up, ahead of realisation.

Why did nobody stop us in our tracks?
Why did nobody warn us with a shrill voice
against this fateful course of action?

Now we're sitting between army tents,
covered in dust and sweat,
telling each other stories of the past;
the past, which trails behind us rudderlessly
as if it were the future ahead of us.

Translation: 2004, Willem Groenewegen