Herman van Veen - Today

Ran into someone at the market the other day
who looked at me in amazement.
"Do you still exist?
Had the urge to turn around.
We got to talking.
The man had seen me in the sixties
in the theater.
He had once emigrated
but returned to the Netherlands
to be buried in Utrecht in due course.

Told him
that besides genetic luck,
the singing
has probably ensured
that I can still, with heart and soul
about a hundred and forty performances a year.
Of course it creaks here and there
and I don't jump as high
as I did at seventy-eight.

So yes sir
I'm still here.
And if it were up to me
even
even longer.

Herman van Veen