WRITER SHOWCASE JEROEN VAN WIJK

For your 30th birthday I gave you an orange juice

because

you never quite tasted 

how healthy an orange should be 

whether its skin is bumby

its size too big or small

its saturation low

or that it doesn’t matter

the teacher said

you were such a promising child

but ever since you were little

you’d only tasted rotten

sleepless nights of twisting 

screaming fights coming from 

the camper trailer kitchen

you only tasted

the squeezing hands 

around your neck clinging

their cold clammy fingers

rotating your body

on a ribbed central spike

as they kept tearing 

out your insides

over and over 

again

you only tasted oranges 

that allowed you to grow

in the shadow of their tree

that grew in the shadow of a tree

that grew in the shadow of a tree

planted generations ago

and while those old darkened days are gone

their taste never faded away

so I collected my most cherished memories

of us chasing each other through the forest

exploring abandoned tunnels 

climbing sturdy branches building

oaken castles just in case

we needed somewhere to be safe

I poured those silver lining moments 

like orange juice into a glass

so you will only remember to taste 

the sweetness of the memories we’ve made

happy birthday 

JEROEN VAN WIJK (1997) is a poet, writer, (poetry) critic, and artist. His work is visual and often focuses on society, storytelling, tragedy, and the attempt at finding beauty in unexpected places. His work has previously appeared in publications such as Hollands Maandblad, Het Gezeefde Gedicht, Meander, Rephrase Magazine, and Seizoenszine. With his writing he also turns to the stage, performing at events like the NULL Festival, Poets in the Hortus, the LIFF, Stichting Granate, and more. For WAER he showcases an independent English poem, as well as two Dutch poems that are part of a larger visual poetry project.

Words JEROEN VAN WIJK

Images JEROEN VAN WIJK

Date 12/12/2024