Ready
~~~~~~~~~~

Used to say I am ready to die
but I was a coward
I was not ready to live

second hand lives
lives of few seconds

Used to say I was ready to die
now I am willing to live
to die anyday now
ready to live ready to leave.

***

Finally I thank my parents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everything I ever learned
came from my parents’ mistakes
the solutions of one generation
are the problems of the next

Whatever they did to help me
was against my nature
Swimming against the waves
I learned where my future was

I shouted and cried until I silenced
and there I could see my angels
helping me to get through

It happened in dreams where
funny films were screened before me
waking me up, my laughs from nowhere.

***

Witches
~~~~~~

The witches look lovely tonight
they are all dressed for the wedding
of Lilith and Prince Charles
Their noses are perfect
and they walk to applaud
the love they always had
The witches they have names
that burn the water that tighten
their belly to the next oven
and we all know the witches love you
they love kings and princes
they love poets and slaves
they love everything
for they are witches
and their loves are ashes.

***

Many Tongues
~~~~~~~~
(this poem comemorates the fact that I have only
written 2 poems in Hebrew in the last two years).

I left the Hebrew language
as others leave a loved woman
they have been trying to fuck
for ten or fifteen years, saying
woman I am a man, hear all the
other women that want me and
now I have to go and get what
I need from them, I am a poet
woman, and you can’t be my
fantasy forever, I am poet in search
of a a language and many tongues
have loved me and your door has
been closed for so long, I had to
open other knobs with other hands
I can’t behave like an amputee forever
and now that so many doors have
opened, now you open yours to see
if I’m still there, I am not and when
you see me near it’s because I took
a walk, a walk through my old habits
I don’t need your tongue, many tongues
have loved me now and I don’t miss
your never existing carress anymore.

##################################

***

The Real Meeting.

We sat in a circle fourteen of us,

pointing knees at each other, drinking

coffee and trying to look relaxed.

Sweaty palms discretely dried on

trousers leg

One of the six women in the group

began talking – women are better at

airing their feelings than men- she

went on, a great length, about a life

of endless cocktail parties around

a swimming pool, posh wine in

expensive restaurant, of which I knew

nothing; fiddled with a lighter,

a sign on the wall read NO SMOKING.

Then the other five spoke in turn,

they all seem to have sprung from

the same glamorous background.

Ten minutes left when the chair asked

if any of the men had anything to say,

we mumbled something about feeling

fine; a short prayer, meeting over and

could go outside lit a fag and the real

meeting began.

————————————-

***