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.
————————————-
***
Jan Oskar Hansen
Palestine.
I sit in my kitchen the wall clock
Ticks ten past seven evening time.
I feel at ease and doves of peace
Cross a distant sky.
The unchanging hum of the fridge
Accentuates my inner harmony,
Perhaps there will be peace too in
Palestine where a child, newly born,
Died in a senseless war and became
A bitter memory long before she
Had a memory herself.
” We’re so very sorry, we apologise,
But we have the right to defend our
Settlers of this land.”
“¦And from the dispossessed, a cry
Of revenge echoes through ravaged
Streets.
I sit in my kitchen and the fridge
Hums a lullaby of everlasting sorrow.
————————————————
***