Everyday is New Year’s Day (even May 1st!) 🥂

I don’t need a New Year’s resolution, I need a Dutch bank account.

Here at PTK, we think every time Mercury turns direct feels like a New Year (are we right or are we right???). And like, how is it MAY already??

Back in January, we had the great privilege of being joined by some of you in two thematic poetry workshops: QUEERING RESOLUTIONS which we hosted with Unwanted Words, and HOT PEOPLE DON’T MAKE RESOLUTIONS with The Berlin Writers. As a part of our mission to platform new writers and showcase poetic experimentation, we left an open invitation to all who participated to publish their work with us (if they were so inclined).

With this in mind, on the first of every month for the time being, we will be dropping new year’s poems from a couple of our fabulous workshop participants! Happy New Year (in May!) and without further ado, here’s Donna Kmetz and Maartje Joanna’s New Years poems!

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Homemaker

by Donna Kmetz (she/her)

I don’t need a New Year’s resolution, I need a Dutch bank account.
And I’m taking all the right steps to get one—
This circular dance with the government
Sending in a deliberately incomplete application
To get the letter
To get the sticker
To register my shady-shitty apartment that I’m trying to make beautiful,
Hopeful lemon wallpaper in the kitchen--
To get the stamp
To get the BSN
To get the bank account.
Every step makes me feel more Dutch.
Every step helps me feel less American.
Further and farther from all the things I want to leave behind
And the things I’ve loved:
The sloping yard at my grandmother’s house
The olives on the table
The swing looped over the old tree—
My grandfather hung it while we watched
Sober, solemn seven-year-olds
But he didn’t fall and we didn’t either.
Now I’m 31 and they’re both dead
And I’m living a different life in a different place.
I moved to this country to surround myself with beauty—
My grandmother would understand.
My seven-year-old self wouldn’t yet.
Last night I opened an envelope I thought was a bill
But it was the number I need to make the appointment
To open my bank account
On Friday.

About Donna

Donna Kmetz is a writer/poet who lives in the Hague. She's currently working on a series of autobiographical stories and poems, featuring her childhood memories, a family that acts like aliens approximating human behavior, and a bird who may or may not have existed. You can find her navigating the Dutch visa process and hanging out with her grumpy cat, Quiche.

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Three’s

by Maartje Joanna (they/she)

Release
Relaxation
Redeem

Heal
Healthy
Hell

When I think of me
It’s in three’s and rounds
It’s in setbacks and setforths
It’s an amazing cup of coffee
On a sunny morning after

Coffee
Cup
Calm

Purpose
Portray
Person

When I think of me
It’s a hug and a dance
A light and a chance
It’s an easy painless walk

Queer 
Club
Cubicle

Fight
For 
Future

I don’t NEED a NY resolution
I DON’T need a NY resolution
All I need is a little time
All I need is more Lina

About Maartje

Started as a visual artist, I now paint with words. Do you hear the words that the brush strokes make on the paper? I am a creative, vivid, calm queer mind that shapes life through stories, images and conversations. Working as a personal assistant and project organizer I am building bridges in the middle of society. Find more of my work on my website or IG jacobusdetweede

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Happy new May everyone! We will be back on June 1st with more new year poems and wishes! Until then,

Xoxo,

PTK