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Poetry || SubmissionsOF ISRAEL AND THE LANGUAGEBy Karen Alkalay-Gut 1. Every word here costs dear- I still examine each like an ancient pearl uncovered in a dig. That's why I don't understand the politics 2. Did you know that the most accurate phrase to describe the mood of the people after the assassination of Rabin remains one coined by some speech writer of Clinton's Shalom Chaver? How my heart was always full of love for that socialist word, comrade - the way it meant we were all in the same existential little boat -friend. 3. And that man, that fine Prime Minister, who didn't understand that not everyone was really 'chaver' so didn't wear an armored vest became dearer to me because of that trust 4. Bibi says let me be the first to extend a hand in peace and then the hand vanishes as if the word hand was a hand itself. 5. My mother used to tell of the boy who couldn't learn Bible the way they used to teach it - with each word in Hebrew translated to Yiddish. Vayomas - is geshtorbn, Sora - Sora. "Boy, What is dead?" "Sarah is dead." "Boy, Vayomas is dead." "Vayomas died?" "Boy, the TRANSLATION is dead!" "What? Sarah and Vayomas AND the translation? All dead? A regular plague!" 6. If I were a teacher of Hebrew today, I would say that life and death are in the hands of language I would stand in Rabin square and demonstrate with a plaque: Death to fanatics and a banner that said: No more banners Karen Alkalay-Gut teaches Victorian poetry at Tel Aviv University but in her own poems prefers a more direct approach than the subjects of her academic concerns. She is "always interested" in reader reactions to her poetry and can be emailed to Karen Alkalay-Gut Check out her intifada diary at http://www.karenalkalay-gut.com/diary  Karen Alkalay-Gut reading at the White Raven on Yonah Hanavi Street in Tel Aviv, photo by Ezra Gut This poem previously appeared in the Massachusetts Review. More poems by Karen Alkalay-Gut Today's Situation
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