2018 Writing Contest
First Place Winner: Poetry (Tie)
Liberation and Exile
The Boys
by Melle Huizinga
Immigratie is de aardbeving die het leven verandert.
Immigration is the earthquake that rearranges life.
Spring 1948
Holland — memories of war — painful rebuilding — fear for the future.
Canada — memories of victory — boundless opportunity — facing the future.
We four wide-eyed innocent young boys
revelled in the exploration of new-found freedoms.
We ran the hills exuberantly like ungainly colts
riding the farmer’s horses, Kate and Charlie,
when they had not been worked that day,
with no barriers, no fences, no interfering neighbours.
Dreams of cowboy exploits and Indian courage of Winitou
and Old Shatterhand filled our nights and our days.
We smelled the rank warm pee
as Charlie the stallion flooded the ground
and we got on our knees hoping to discover the tiny baby horses
he would implant when the mare was ready.
We knew about these things
but
we were free from adult explanation and fearful old world cautions.
After all we accepted the land and spoke the language.
We fished in the fast running creek
and swam in the dark pools shaded by maples
unencumbered by the Dutch need for swimming suits.
We crammed wild strawberries into our mouths
each tiny red sun-warmed berry an explosion of delight
that filled us with a sensual pleasure
never known in the confines of Holland.
We opened our skinny rib cages to the blazing sun
burning skin into hard brownness rather than soft European white
no more for us the soft mist that obscures
or sun filtered by the lowering clouds of Holland
or looking skyward in fear of the destructive liberators
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