Let's Pretend that the War, and: The First Painting
Rent from DeepDyve- Let's Pretend that the War, and: The First Painting
Let's Pretend that the War
Love I sing, I say love
—Meir Wieseltier
Let's pretend that the war here was made of loveAn oppressed enemy swept away by loveA mutual, one-sided occupation of loveBustling settlements swarming with loveThe eyes of preachers in mosques bellowing loveIn refugee camps, walls stained with slogans of loveThe news every hour, sugared announcements dripping loveRoadblocks with barbed wires in the name of loveTerrorists infiltrating shopping malls buckled with loveCoexistence, a hollow word, an abandoned tank made of love.
The First Painting
How did God markCain's forehead?With Abel's distorted lipsturning skyward?Like the mouths of the butcheredor a white featherfrom the wing of one of the cherubimblackened at the brim.And perhaps he plowed his foreheadwith wrinkles, two or three, [End Page 104] those frail furrowsdeepening the wail of regretas the heart brims over with memoryand the soul dies on lipsleaving a weak whisperinstead.
Shai Dotan lives in Jerusalem where he works at the Israeli Tax Authority. He is one of the founders of "Ktovet" (Address), a group of poets who hold readings and workshops in a community center near the Jewish market in Jerusalem. His first book, On the Verge, won Israel's Ministry of Education and Culture prize.
Ohad Stadler is a scriptwriter and a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. He has translated the work of Rachel Chalfi for the Seventh International Poetry Festival in Jerusalem. He is currently at work on his first novel.
