Demonstrations
1.
The feeling is not new. We have been seeing
the move away from the country we had dreamed
as soon as it was created. Even before, when
Arlozorov muttered, “Jews did not kill Jews,”
days before he was shot. Kestner assassinated
because his heroism may have been understood
as selfish. Everyone is afraid of betrayal,
and for fear of the fear, betrays.
We fear each other too much
to trust ourselves.
Here, on the streets of Tel Aviv,
facing the t-shirt of the back
of some anonymous protester,
we agree to be friends, beg pardon
as we move with our flags close
to the screens to hear the speaker,
joke with strangers about the heat,
unbearable but unfelt faced
with a country bound by laws
from the middle ages.
3.
Half a block away from the crowds,
Some kid was kicking over the scooters
when an older guy stopped him
and threatened to call the cops. the boy
went beserk and began to scream out curses
I hadn’t heard in ages. The only one missing
was that he’d fuck the other guy’s mother.
And in the background was the chaos
of the demonstrations, the drums and whistles
piercing randomly and with growing force.
You have to be for or against, he feels, but
All he knows is the pain of uncertainty,
A house shaking on its foundations.
4.
“We’re right behind you,” she said,
A woman I had not seen in years
nor thought of, but suddenly embrace,
“We lost you in petty differences,
she says, “but now we are one people.”
I turn to her, sweaty, breathless.
I never dreamt this day would come.
5.
And what of the others? My comrades
who have left the country in desperation?
Could we bring them back? My heart aches
for each work of art not created in this land
that spat out anyone not following the path.
Suddenly I see the possibility of room
for all tongues, colors, ways of life,
for a land that restores hope for all.
6.
But then my mind returns to Tennyson
“So runs my dream: but what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry.”
He could afford it
Demonstrations
1.
The feeling is not new. We have been seeing
the move away from the country we had dreamed
as soon as it was created. Even before, when
Arlozorov muttered, “Jews did not kill Jews,”
days before he was shot. Kestner assassinated
because his heroism may have been understood
as selfish. Everyone is afraid of betrayal,
and for fear of the fear, betrays.
We fear each other too much
to trust ourselves.
Here, on the streets of Tel Aviv,
facing the t-shirt of the back
of some anonymous protester,
we agree to be friends, beg pardon
as we move with our flags close
to the screens to hear the speaker,
joke with strangers about the heat,
unbearable but unfelt faced
with a country bound by laws
from the middle ages.
3.
Half a block away from the crowds,
Some kid was kicking over the scooters
when an older guy stopped him
and threatened to call the cops. the boy
went beserk and began to scream out curses
I hadn’t heard in ages. The only one missing
was that he’d fuck the other guy’s mother.
And in the background was the chaos
of the demonstrations, the drums and whistles
piercing randomly and with growing force.
You have to be for or against, he feels, but
All he knows is the pain of uncertainty,
A house shaking on its foundations.
4.
“We’re right behind you,” she said,
A woman I had not seen in years
nor thought of, but suddenly embrace,
“We lost you in petty differences,
she says, “but now we are one people.”
I turn to her, sweaty, breathless.
I never dreamt this day would come.
5.
And what of the others? My comrades
who have left the country in desperation?
Could we bring them back? My heart aches
for each work of art not created in this land
that spat out anyone not following the path.
Suddenly I see the possibility of room
for all tongues, colors, ways of life,
for a land that restores hope for all.
6.
But then my mind returns to Tennyson
“So runs my dream: but what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry.”
He could afford it