"Dutch Revisions"

They called it Dutch courage,

as if a heart needed a bottle
before it could face the storm.

Yet I've seen courage sober—
steady as a dike at midnight,
holding back a sea no one else noticed.

They called it Dutch comfort,
meaning consolation thin as paper.

But comfort can be practical:
a lamp left burning in the window,
a chair pulled closer without a word.

A Dutch feast, they joked,
where the host disappears.

Perhaps the greater generosity
is trusting guests to become companions
rather than spectators.

And if a Dutch uncle speaks plainly,
it may not be scolding at all—
only respect enough
to tell the truth directly.

The old phrases arrived carrying daggers.
Time turned them around.

Now they sound less like insults
and more like things
the world could use a little more of.

.