Some severe
matrons are
Offended
By
The white
Small
Panties
Painted
By Balthus
What should
We say
However
About
This cotton
Or this silk?
Much more
Touching
Is the
Poem
Under
The cloth
BALTHUS II
Balthus
Paints
Never
Ended
Desire
A woman
Not yet
Born
Thérèse
Dreaming
About
A hungry
Wolf
Or a
Caressing
Hand
Michel Houellebecq
Just like
Such a poet
Said in
One line
I want
To come
Nearer
Of your
Humid
Zone
The train
Has no
Other
Reason
To follow
The road
But this
Tunnel of
Wet peace
(Because yes
The world
Too fast
Overcrossed
Is
Nothing
But hills
Ballast
And fake
Dead factories
Only a
Warm swamp
Is true)
Laurent Robert is a Belgian poet, writing in French (but sometimes also in English). He was born in Chimay (Belgium) in 1969. He has published an essay, Georges Fourest ou le carnaval de la littérature (Dijon, Éditions Universitaires de Dijon, 2012) and five books of poems, Protocole du seul (Tournai, Unimuse, 1994), Dix Haïku (Wasmuël, Éditions de La Mariette, 2014), Métro Stalingrad (Saint-Denis, Edilivre, 2015), Guerres (Mazères, Le Chasseur abstrait, 2017) and Gorgonzola (Mazères, Le Chasseur abstrait, 2018). He teaches french literature and poetry at HEH (university college in Mons, Belgium) and at Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium).