Poem

Batsheva Dori-Carlier

Side by side

HEAT WAVE IN STOCKHOLM, JULY 2014

White seagulls swoop up and down
like sirens in my head all night.
The flight to Israel is delayed, no longer assured,
and I write a note to buy milk and organic honey
at the natural foods store.
In the morning in the virgin forest
we pick intensely red raspberries and wild strawberries
whose dripping juice makes stains on shirts that may be
removed in the wash but what about the red stains
spreading over shirts
over there, ceaselessly,
like the cry of seagulls in my mind.
At the edge of the forest there’s a cliff that’s been
here before us and will remain long after.

The 2014 Gaza war was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas members, the IDF conducted an operation to arrest militant leaders, Hamas fired rockets into Israel and a seven-week conflict broke out. The Israeli strikes, the Palestinian rocket attacks and the ground fighting resulted in the death of thousands of people, the majority of them Gazans. [Wikipedia] In Hebrew the war was called “tsuk eitan” - literally, strong or steadfast cliff - and translated by the Israeli government into English as “Operation Defensive Edge”.

חמסין בסטוקהולם, יולי 2014

שְׁחַפִים לְבָנִים עוֹלִים וְיוֹרְדִים
כְּסִירֵנוֹת בְּרָאשִׁי כָּל הַלַּיְלָה. הַטִּיסָה לָאָרֶץ תְּקוּעָה, לֹא מֻבְטָחָת,
אֲנִי רוֹשֶׁמֶת לִקְנוֹת חָלָב וּדְבַשׁ אוֹרְגָּנִי
מֵחֲנוּת טֶבַע.
בַּבֹּקֶר אֲנַחְנוּ קוֹטְפִים בְּיַעַר עַד פֶּטֶל וְתוּתֵי בָּר אֲדֻמִּים מְאֹד,
עָסִיס מְטַפְטֵף עַל הַחֻלְצוֹת
אֶת הַכְּתָמִים אֶפְשָׁר לְהוֹרִיד
בַּכְּבִיסָה וּמָה קוֹרֶה עִם הַכְּתָמִים
הָאֲדֻמִּים הַמִּתְפַּשְּׁטִים בַּחֻלְצוֹת
בְּאַרְצִי וְלֹא מַפְסִיקִים,
כְּמוֹ צְוָחוֹת הַשְּׁחַפִים בְּרָאשִׁי.
בִּקְצֶה הַיַּעַר יֵשׁ צוּק שֶׁהָיָה כָּאן
לְפָנֵינוּ וְיִשָּׁאֵר זְמַן רַב אַחֲרֵינוּ.