In the middle of this, I also left behind / my mother, forty-six years old, / still menstruating, still falling in love, / her long hair gathered in a sloppy hair pin, / making family dinners
“Once earthenware utensils have become defiled, they remain impure and must be broken.”
“Ars Poetica was for the release of Mizrahi anger, on the cutting edge, about speaking back. Poetry wasn’t ten people in a library anymore. Ars Poetica was built on Facebook, it was like a stadium.”
“Oh yes, please save yourself for poetry,” / said a Libyan friend to my “I dont’want to be political— / I’m just alive” fb note.
“The little-boy body wrapped in shrouds / is now / the single certainty.”
All in all I’m a worn-out dog living between volcanic mountains / that God created for her, circling in silence / after nothing but to talk to talk to talk to talk …
“stop talking about words / talk with words / contentedly / sufficiently / fully”
“Also my mother and also me / it turns out / were pregnant // and we miscarried on the same day”
“Go, go to Auschwitz. / Maybe you’ll get a few poems out of it. “
“So whose dream are we talking of? Or perhaps we should ask for whom was the dream intended?”
ABOUT US
Halah is an online magazine dedicated to showcasing Israeli literature in English. Born out of Jerusalism’s in-person events, Halah serves as the primary English-language platform dedicated to contemporary Israeli literary work. With a focus on translation, the magazine publishes original English pieces alongside works translated from any language. Crossing linguistic, ethnic, and religious boundaries, Halah aims at radical inclusivity by inviting anyone who is a citizen or resident of Israel to contribute.
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