Someone
just climbed to the top of the cliff
and started cursing the sea:
Stupid water, stupid pregnant water,
slimy copy of the sky,
hesitant hoverer between the sun and the moon,
pettifogging reckoner of shells,
fluid, loud-mouthed bull,
fertilizing the rocks with his blood,
suicidal sword
splintering itself on any promontory,
hydra, fragmenting the night,
breathing salty clouds of silence,
spreading jelly-like wings
in vain, in vain,
gorgon, devouring its own body,
water, you absurd flat skull of water –
Thus for a while he cursed the sea,
which licked his footprints in the sand like a wounded dog.
And then he came down
and stroked
the small immense stormy mirror of the sea.
There you are, water, he said,
and went his way.
A Pity. We Were Such a Good Invention
Yehuda Amichai
They amputated
your thighs off my hips.
As far as I’m concerned
they are all surgeons. All of them.
They dismantled us
each from the other.
As far as I’m concerned
they are all engineers. All of them.
A pity. We were such a good
and loving invention.
An airplane made from a man and wife.
Wings and everything.
We hovered a little above the earth.
We even flew a little.
Arguments
Lisa Suhair Majaj
consider the infinite fragility of an infant’s skull,
how the bones lie soft and open
only time knitting them shut
consider a delicate porcelain bowl
how it crushes under a single blow—
in one moment whole years disappear
consider: beneath the din of explosions
no voice can be heard
no cry
consider your own sky on fire
your name erased
your children’s lives “a price worth paying”
consider the faces you do not see
the eyes you refuse to meet
“collateral damage”
