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Poetry || SubmissionsTwo Poems by Moshe BenarrochTHE HAMASS TERRORIST after Wysalva Czymborska "The Terrorist" and dedicated to Asaf and Meital and to all the victims who lost legs, lives and futures. 1. In a few moments he will blow himself he is young, he has no children he has no wife, in a moment nothing will be left of him. No one will know who he was he left home years ago and disappeared forever. I am sitting very close drinking an espresso and smoking a cigarillo my friend asks me to come with him to the place of the bomb I tell him I am tired which is not true and that I will wait for him. he doesn't know and I don't know that in a few minutes the terrorist will explode the hope for peace will explode and that Meital's leg will explode and her brother Asaf will go to heaven. Meital's husband, a Doctor will hear the bomb and run to help the wounded not knowing that his wife and her brother are there. I am savoring the espresso It is a sunny day in Tel Aviv and after this bomb nothing will be the same again for months people will be afraid to come back here Dizengof street will be deserted. No one can stop him now it is too late he will die for Allah and for being young, virgin and indoctrinated. Even if I go there I can't stop him. My friend disappears. 2. Suddenly there is a boom and then there is silence 15 seconds of silence like the moment before God created the world or it is like the silence before being born It is a screaming silence that can cut the air, then there are police cars stopping the silence first come the Peugeot 205 one, two, three, fifteen of them, then the ambulance comes then people come from the place they have to tell the story they speak to everybody and to themselves a mother doesn't know what happened to her daughter people are making phone calls with telephones and mobiles very soon the whole system collapses this is the center of Israel Dizengof center in Purim everybody is here or could be here. I sit, hear what happened don't know what happened to my friend (he reappeared 5 hours later) I am left speechless for half an hour I stand try to talk to the waitress I can't make a sound I go back to my seat drink the water left. 3. I think of the whole day then I am really afraid. How I skipped the place of the bomb a place where I always go or pass through I took many side streets and my friend didn't understand why he just followed me I wanted all the time to go back to Jerusalem "Half hour in front of the sea That's enough for me" he said but he wanted the coffee "let's drink it here in Sheinkin and then go back" but he insisted he wanted to drink it in Frishman, and so on for the whole day. He has promised not to insist again and just follow me. 4. My religious friend said it is a sign but a sign of what of being right or being wrong. What kind of smoky shadowy cloudy world is this that when there is a sign we can't decipher it. First epublished in Ygdrasil (september 1998) UPON HEARING THAT MAHMOUD DARWISH WAS ILL and I hear that you are in a hospital near Paris and I hear that you are very ill and I feel my hair chilling and I say no I cant write a poem about Darwish he is my enemy but I know He is not my enemy I am just afraid of what the others will say It's one thing to say that Darwish is the best Israeli poet just to see their half smiles saying that I am crazy and another to write about you and I have loved you poems you, like me, an exiled in the world when the world is all exile when the words are all aliens and I loved when you said in an interview that had you known your poems would be translated to so many European languages you would have written them differently with less symbolism an clearer I loved you when you said that a poet has to write his poems clear I loved when you wrote about El Andalus and making love in the afternoon. May god be with you, Mahmoud, my friend not my enemy my fighter with words stronger than weapons may Allah be your healer may you live many years to come and may you rest when the time has come in the gardens of eden. Moshe Benarroch was born in 1959 in Tetuan/Morocco, between Tangier and Gibraltar. He grew up in a mixture of cultures and languages, Spanish being his mother tongue, attending a French school, hearing the Arabic of the streets and praying in Hebrew. In 1972 He emigrated to israel, and lives since then in Jerusalem. Published books in Hebrew: The Immigrant's Lament (poetry) 1994. The Coming Book (prose) 1997. The Bread And The Dream (poetry) 1998. His poems and prose have been published in numerous publications in Israeli literary magazines, and international magazines, recently in Ygdrasil, Perihelion, Miller's Pond, Europe, Poetry magazine. His works have been published in Hebrew, Spanish, French and English. He writes in Hebrew, Spanish and English. He is contributing editor at Ygdrasil and has e-published a book with Ygdrasil titled 'Moben's Poems' in English. His first novel 'Benshawen' will appear in 1999. His poems can be found on the net at Poems from the Planet Earth YGDRASIL, Canada, POETRY MAGAZINE at HTTP://www.poetrymagazine.com and elsewhere. Another poem by Moshe Benarroch at Ariga Today's Situation
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