israeli politics

We’re still here, aren’t we?

We may have lost all track of time

Maybe for us it is the 306th

day of March, but at least

it’s not the Ides.  Maybe

some of us have not left our homes,

spent more time in bed than in our cribs,

kissed fewer lips and longed for more

than ever before.  Maybe we have lost

folks or have endured the illness

that passes all comprehension

and maybe nothing has happened

to anyone we know.  So.  So.

We’re still here, you and me.

We’re still here, aren’t we?

 

december 28, 2020 – new years’ poem Read Post »

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“it’s in your mind, some poet just told me when I started to mention the crazy things going on in my body. And maybe she’s right.  Because I really am all right.  but suddenly something pokes at me from inside – here, there, somewhere else.  a boring stomach ache, a sharp pain in the back of my head, a jolt from my side. Totally unlike any symptom we’ve been warned against.  Clearly an imagined war going on inside my body.  Nevertheless, it meant a day not doing the stuff I should have done.  

But maybe it’s real.  And which are the forces of evil, which are the forces of good?

 

december 28, 2020 – crazy symptoms Read Post »

israeli politics

One thing about closure is that you don’t know much about what is going on around you.  I’m tired of talking to people on the phone, on zoom, even of looking out the window at who’s taking a walk down the street.  I know that my grandchildren are all in school, but I have no idea of how it feels to go back there and whether the teachers are terrified of catching something.

So I announced on facebook that we are half-vaccinated.  And what I discovered was that many of my equally silent friends have also been vaccinated and were not sure who to tell.  The estimate is that by tomorrow there will be half a million people.  Out of a population of – it turns out – almost 9 million, that’s not bad.

Was anyone sick after the vaccine? I asked my friends who had written me.  “Eh,” was the majority response.  “A little soreness, maybe a bit more tiredness.  In short: Eh.”  This from a population of kvetchers.

december 28, 2020 – vaccines – before, during and after Read Post »

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Nobody believed in this lockdown.  Everyone was desperate to get at much as possible in before it started at 5.  groceries, street food, clothing, fun, just walking in the street.  We had something we had to do there, and weren’t counting on the crowds and traffic jams so we wound up leaving the parking garage at 4:35. We should have been home in fifteen minutes, but it took forty.  And we weren’t the last ones on the roads, not by a long shot.  So now we’ll have to rush out earlier than we’d planned to get our vaccines.  

It’s pretty clear that we’re counting on the vaccines to get us out of the lockdown after two weeks.  There are already more than a quarter of a million people here who have been vaccinated for the first time, and our entire population is around 8 million.  

If only the poor businesses can hold on for 2 weeks, we may be slowly coming around but I fear that even our favorite food, the felafel, may be in danger.  We’re still allowed to do orders from restaurants, but street food can’t work that way…

So there are 150,000 unemployed and I have no idea how they are going to get back to work again.

 

 

December 27, 2020 – Dizengoff just before the lockdown Read Post »

blog, poetry

So many things we could do is this last shabbat before lockdown!  The beach, a bit of shopping, last-minute visits with kids, matbe just a visit with friends.  So many choices, we couldn’t decide and stayed home except for a short visit to a visit to a nursery that turned out to be closed.  We were simply paralyzed.  

maybe with excitement – last night my sister-in-law passed on to Ezi another box of papers that belong to the previous generations and we spent half of last night looking at things like the front page of the newspaper declaring the independence of Israel, letters from a world war I prisoner of war camp,   photographs of Tel Aviv from the 1920’s.

we were also thrilled to see grandchildren yesterday – one more delightful than the other – it is pretty remarkable how easily i’m moved nowadays!

 

maybe with expectation – among the many other things we’re doing tomorrow are our vaccinations.  Ours are in the evening and we have no way of knowing how well the protection will be for a lymphoma-treated patient or how my allergy-prone body will take it, but the excitement is incredible.

so far 200000 people have been vaccinated in this country, and apparently the health clinics are working around the clock.  Let’s just hope this will be our last lockdown and everyone will be vaccinated.  When one of my ex-students came down with corona, we waited every day for her to update her facebook – especially since she had lymphoma when Ezi did.  But she is healthy and back on facebook, and we are relieved.  

 

 

 

december 26, 2020 – last day before lockdown and vaccine Read Post »

blog, poetry

there was an article in HaAretz today (Hebrew) about a new book concerning the ceramics factory, Lapid, that disappeared a while ago.  We used to have many many dishes and vases from Lapid but they were either broken or considered too provincial and old fashioned to preserve.  In fact, the only thing I kept as a treasure was a little tile made by Elspeth Cohen, who was the star of Lapid. 

She was a very good friend of the family in those days, and I imagine that this piece was not her usual ceramic style. The kind of optimism Elspeth had here was shared by many people then.  

december 25, 2020 – Lapid Read Post »

israeli politics

so a notice comes for a package waiting in the post office.  it is very exciting, especially since the package delivered early this morning was only a special shampoo I ordered a while ago that I no longer need.  THIS package will be worth the trouble of traipsing to the post office (where there is no parking), taking a number, and standing in line – because in all likelihood it will be Heather Ferguson’s necklaces that she sent from Canada so long ago!  Yes, I think, and I’ll wear the necklaces and give one to each of my daughters, and maybe to one or two of my best friends.  Anyway, this dreaming keeps me going for a while.  

Of course the P.O. is crowded and I take the wrong kind of number at first, and when I realize my mistake, take the right kind, and see that I might as well go across the street to the university bookstore and buy a new keyboard before my number is called.   I come back half an hour later and it is almost my turn so I stand in the middle of the room yards away from everyone else.  

Suddenly my number is called, but as I step up to window #4, someone from before returns to the clerk to ask something, and a delivery man drops off a bundle of papers, and a man with a box steps in to complain, and suddenly I hear the number after mine called to a different carroll.   

It is my turn to butt in and complain. Determinedly, I take my place at window #5 and show her my number.  Yes, she says, and adds a few words.  But she is behind her mask and behind a plastic window and there is noise from the crowds behind me and I can’t understand what she’s saying.  It takes me a minute to realize that I have to show her my notice.  “People wait so long, they forget what they came here for,”  she shouts at me,  and goes to the other room to bring the package.  

But it’s only a slim envelope and I walk back a bit crestfallen.  No jewelry for me.  It turns out to be a book of Louise Gluck, “Faithful and Virtuous Night,” and since I was a bit disappointed by other books of hers I was not happy to see it.  But it’s really good.  Really.  I read the first poem in the car as Ezi and I drove to buy a pair of shoes before the shutdown, and it captivated me like no other in recent years.  

We’re going into lockdown anyway on Sunday so the necklaces will wait.  And even if they arrived, my planned visit with Heather and friends on zoom wearing my Jools will have to be cancelled because I’M GETTING A VACCINE ON SUNDAY!!!

 

 

december 24, 2020 – post office Read Post »