July 30, 2026
Hulde aan de stad, het landschap en de omgeving waar wij onze jeugd door brachten.
Gerimpeld ligt voor mij oog
het water, overal.
Als een wijd meer
met daarboven
de laagvliegende meeuwen.
Langzaam zie ik toch de nevelige gloed
van de rozig opkomende zon,
en de molen, statig...
Continue reading →
July 27, 2026
Unrequited love
The morning has progressed, it’s around noon and the heat is sweltering. Not a drop of rain has fallen in months, shrubbery and trees are covered under a layer of gray dust and the earth is cracked in...
Continue reading →
June 22, 2026
Baguio Girl
She came to the interview with Carla (June’s sister we found out later) and I was relieved that at least she wasn’t too humble to speak, like the ones who came before her.
She asked if she could hold the baby. ‘Vaughan, Vaughan, aiaiaiai…nice boy, what a good...
Continue reading →
June 8, 2026
Benjamin’s Women
“Stop it! Are you nuts? Let go of me!” Elaine fought to break free. She stood at the top of the stairs in off-white organza, a little crepe hat with ostrich feathers already sliding at a perilous angle across her forehead.
“You are not marrying that… that man!...
Continue reading →
June 1, 2026
The Fabulous Twin Sisters
'No, he don't say that, let me tell the story—'
'He say he has the power to—'
'That woman was with him, dress very poorly—'
'He has the power to take the—'
'We must rusho, big party tonight. Six hundred people—'
'No, no, not six hundred — always too...
Continue reading →
May 23, 2026
Laugh to Keep from Crying
“Anna, dear, you look wonderful,” Sarah announced as she collapsed into a chair. “Look who’s here… Arthur, you old fart!” She cackled at her own joke. “No, no, keep your insults to yourself. Stay away from me, you menace! Oh, Anna, before I forget,...
Continue reading →
May 18, 2026
‘No, no, no, no…it’s not what I’m looking for.’ Irritation marks
Evelyn’s features.
‘How about these?’ Her stout husband, in his Bermuda’s and the lime-green polo shirt, holds up a pair of sunglasses.
Evelyn looks up and instantly her face contorts with rage.
‘God! You...
Continue reading →
May 14, 2026
Tuesday, February 21, 1978
Hurrah, we’re in London, in the Grosvenor Court Hotel: a nice, very comfortable room with a bath, shower, television, radio, and an electric kettle to make coffee and tea. It is so lovely and costs sixty-three guilders a night.
It’s foggy here, but...
Continue reading →
May 9, 2026
April 1, 1962
For the first time in my life I have been really, really sad. It is the biggest sorrow I have ever had. I am a little better now, but it still shocked me very much. My dearest friend, and the boy I loved most, Frits, died on March 19.
On Monday morning at half...
Continue reading →
May 4, 2026
“I hear the drums going every night.”
Jetta — white-haired, nearly forty, Danish, and teetering on the edge of anorexia — sits down beside her two friends. Lena, a Finnish blonde of the same age and walking that same thin line, and Maite, ten years younger, petite,...
Continue reading →