The Master of Ceremony

Roger Nupie will be the MC at the 2nd European Poetry Festival  on September 17th, 8 PM in Antwerp, Permeke Library.  He does this with flair, yet we shouldn't forget he is a poet in his own right. On the anti-war day he read the following poem in dutch.

Landmines (How big)

How big is man

juggling words like

bomb, shell, rocket, rocket bomb,

and fills them with smaller bombs.

How big is man

if his ammunition ends up in trees,

on roofs or under wretched

African sand.

How big is man

if in the aftermath of wars

not cleaned up antipersonnel mines

still cause daily harm.

How big is man

if he paints these bombs

in bright colours

- attracting mainly children.

How big is man

who because of this takes

an arm or a leg

of a child.

How big is the rat

who locates explosives

of landmines

with its nose.

How big is man,

who with a metal detector

only manages thirty, forty square meters

per day.

How big is the rat

who in half an hours

time checks

one hundred square meters.

How big.

How big.

from the upcoming book: Lighthouse, world internet books.