Ronny Sommek

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I count the bears on R’s pajamas   

From twelfth grade listening

To me reading a poem

About ballet shoes.

The teacher T’  in the next square

Missed a hair above the left eye

When she tried to be exact

Plucking her eyebrows

The beard of Teacher Y’

Is more manicured

Than the Gardens of Luxembourg

And the cat on the lap of  H

Deserves an embrace.

D’ judging by his shirt is a member

Of the Nature Conservation Group,

And the flowers in the vase behind him

I identify as permitted to pick.

K’s turtle-neck sweater is black and, she

Looks like the raven in the old Scottish ballad,

And I hope that T doesn’t fix that eagle nose

That really complements her,

And while we’re on the subject of the nose:

The fact that P’ is the ideal

Of painters of Aphrodite

That N’ is freckled

And H’ is too close to the camera.

She’s the last to turn off the video

And my eyes suddenly munch on my own

the screen that fills

with squares of chocolate.

translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut –

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