Let me tell you about my Amsterdam Moon
you have to taste it
you have to have a bite of it
then let it bite back
and be drawn in slowly
Expect fluctuations
serendipitous midnights
witching hours
be your own tourist
rendering self geography
intangibly flux
Turn left and follow the square to the point of the shadow
all void vacant and dark as soil
yet as the soul looks once more
it finds its canals
water lilies heineken green
hema-nous blue lotus
floating radiant toxic
waste of petals
Turn left and follow the square to the point of the shadow
all vacant and dark as soil
and as the soul looks once more
it finds its canals
water lilies heineken greens
hema-nous blue lotus
floating a radiant toxic
waste of petals
and bikes
Dutch men
boys and dikes
the nonchalant vibe
of an eternal party
on the national flag!
Minerva over the Princess gracht
surveys the drunks and their large hopes
poking through the night in search of oblivion’s
swans ducks drunks dicks
their
pleasure voids
liquid scales
waves made of herrings
their pale essences
like apples
like grandeur
watery dark browns
dark greens
dark reds
but the spirits of the city are female
The sisterhood of darkness
shimmers in our watery
earthy groundness.
It’s a good lesson
Annulling men’s law, sunshine
and roads. Listen
for out of moon devouring feast
criss crossing these still waters
comes this message to ear and tongue.
Minerva’s full moon
like the goddess of the forbidden universe
descends with an army of orange organs
and dart boats
to the beat of the electronic windmills
spun
by archangels garnished in obsidian.
Here, XVIth century balconies
bloom.
The moon explodes.
She flashes her body
turning into a lip orchestra
trilips qudralips quintalips sextalips septalips
thunder lips hungry and ravenous mass.
If she’s welcoming the anthropocene
its with a finger and antibodies
About the author
Jana Astanov is an interdisciplinary artist, a poet and an independent curator living in the Shawangunk Mountains. She is the author of five collections of poetry: Antidivine, Grimoire, Sublunar, The Pillow Book of Burg, and Birds of Equinox. Follow her on IG @Jana_Astanov & Twitter @JanaAstanov
