מולדת

כאן בביתנו גר אח שלי

זה גם את הבית של אחותי

ואמא, ואבא, גם סבתה שלי

 וגם את הסבא, ולפעמים, 

הוא גם את הבית של הבני דוד שלי

הארץ שלנו

כל כך קטנה

והמרפקים שלנו

הם תמיד חבולים

24.10.2023

This world has consumed my resolve 

Like a handful of the 

Crumbs of chips

The only remainders

At the bottom

Of a Pringles can. 

22.10.2023

Can we go home now? 

There's no good rides, and the food is terrible and

I'm out of tickets anyway. 

I'd looked forward to this for so long, 

But the funhouse mirrors are all cracked, and

The paint is peeling.

The ferris wheel is rusted and I don't trust it, and

Even the teacups are out of order. 

How many times can we play that  game? 

The ping pong ball will

Never fit into the bottle.

I've had my fill of funnel cakes.

Can we leave now? This place is too loud.

I've a headache, and I want to rest. 

21.10.2023 II

In line at the grocery store

There was a couple in front of me

She pushed the cart while he

He scratched her back

Gently through her coat

And she gave in to fatigue

Or affection

Or both, and her head fell to the side that he was on 

They shared conversation

That no one else could hear

How much, I thought

They looked like we once did. 

21.10.2023

I wear you like a scarf 

In winter, you keep me warm

But in summer

You itch my neck

And I wish that I could take you off.

14.10.2023

 If these horrors break you open

as they do me

Let yourself be broken

Let yourself be open

Humanity is a river in which we live

Let it in

Let it fill the

Spaces between your organs

Let it fill your organs

Let it take you over until there is

No more you. 

You are us.  

We are you. 

There is no difference. 

No difference at all.

13.10.2023

 Today is Hamas' "Day of Rage"

Today, I have therapy downtown. 

Today, I'm wearing my blingiest Magen David. 

Today, I am afraid.

I'm afraid, but I won't be made 

to hide. 

And even if I could hide, why should I?

Why should my lot be any different from that of my 

Brothers, sisters and siblings who cannot hide? 

Because they are charedi 

Or because they live in Re'im

Or a thousand other ways 

in which we are separated from the world. 

True, maybe it's guilt: 

That I'm here in NY, 

While so many of my loved ones are still in our homeland. 

It probably is, but nevertheless. 

I am Re'im.

I am Nova.

I am Kfar Aza.

I'm Tel Aviv.

I'm a Zionist.

I'm an Israeli. 

I am a Jew.

הנני.

11.10.2023

 Our heart is broken.

We'd be soulless if it wasn't

And we are not. 

Our heart is broken

Wide open

This is why you can hear it beat even across the world. 

Let your heart break, 

Especially if it's soft.  

Don't waste your precious energy denying this injury 

But remember always

Softness is malleable

Our broken heart will heal 

Scar tissue will create

New shapes 

New strengths

Tend to this broken heart

And remember it's not just yours

That we are a people of one heart

In however many bodies.

10.10.2023

How often I've heard

Antisemites claim

That we Jews went like sheep 

To our deaths in the Shoah

But this morning, there's something I 

Can't help but wonder

How many of us actually did acquiesce to our own murders

 

How many of us saw how dismal the world had become

How many of us—

Through layers of generational trauma, felt

The old familiar hatred 

And hostility that had risen once again

And sensed our hopelessness

In the deafening silence of supposed friends, who were 

Too intellectual to

So much as name the injustice

Without "considering the complexities at hand"

I can't help but wonder 

How many of us went to our deaths

But not like sheep after all

Rather like warriors

Knowing how our deaths 

Would come to stain humanity

Apparently, such stains fade 

In almost no time at all. 

09.10.2023

How can I scroll past your photo? 

You, amongst the 1400 something other worlds that have been immolated

Consumed

As if you were some 

Thin symbol in

Soy ink on rice paper

Thinner than the pixels that

Create this fake ghost of you now 

How can I scroll past your face, when my 

Black hole heart wants to contain you forever?

And maybe therein

There is really a white hole

Maybe 

Rather than collapsing,

Into some terrible singularity, 

My black hole heart can

Draw you in

Protect you

Until it can cough you out again

Safe

Bright

And whole 

On the other side.