Today I Called Out "Papa"
Today I Called Out "Papa" as I Wandered Down a Tel Aviv Street
I grew up in-between two brothers. Papa always knew how to protect me.
I was smart. I knew how to use it since childhood. It was enough to call out "Papa"
When one of my brothers tried to challenge my right. I knew that papa
Is always
There. He'll always show up. With his noble authority. Without a word.
He'll instill confidence inside me
He knew my fragility. We had a Gordian connection
Of water signs
I'm Pisces and he's Scorpio
Papa is dead. But today I called out "Papa"
As I wandered down a Tel-Aviv street, and I couldn't live
In my skin anymore
Papa showed up and stood beside me. Everything calmed down in me. He was there
To show me
The designer shop window. He stopped at the bookstore. Asking me if
My books are there
Shall we go in? I asked. We'll ask. We asked and the slender salesman, who resembled
the young Trotsky, took out
three of my six books. I told him, make some space. Soon
A new book will be born.
No problem, he said. And we left the store with a book a new poet. Papa never read
My poems. Fifty years and His Hebrew was still missing. It
Gave me the freedom to write
Whatever I want. Shameless.
He was a D6 poet. Without any words. Mommy was
The vocalist
A first voice
And I?
Yael gave an interview in which she said that she's the sum total of her parents. I am not.
I am something else.
I am the sum total of the lives I let them touch me and those I didn't let.