Poems for Monday

Yet another discovery from Edward Hirsch's 'Poet's Choice' column in 'The Washington Post.' I highly recommend reading the brief analytical essay before these poems by Aharon Shabtai from 'J'Accuse,' translated from the Hebrew by Peter Cole.

War
For Ehud Barak

I, too, have declared war:
You'll need to divert part of the force
deployed to wipe out the Arabs --
to drive them out of their homes
and expropriate their land --
and set it against me.
You've got tanks and planes,
and soldiers by the battalion;
you've got the rams' horns in your hands
with which to rouse the masses;
you've got men to interrogate and torture;
you've got cells for detention.
I have only this heart
with which I give shelter
to an Arab child.
Aim your weapon at it:
even if you blow it apart
it will always,
always mock you.

I Love Passover

I love Passover,
since that's when you'll be back.
Like every year,
we'll take the car to Kiryat Motzkin
and, over glasses of wine
and bowls of charoset,
Zvi will tell us
of the March of Death.
Then we'll return to Tel Aviv,
and as you drive in the dark,
the car's windows
will fog up,
and I'll put my hand on your knee.
At home, we'll get into bed
and celebrate our own
private Seder.
I see myself putting
my lips to your belly
and thinking of honey,
while in the street below
our angel passes.

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Am ambivalent about this. It's lower than the score of the person I gacked it from, whom I will not embarrass by naming here!

My freakiness score is: 297 Are you a freak? Find out your freakiness level.