Friday, April 9, 2010

I Want to Talk About the Sea

Just Today....
I want to talk to you about the sea.
No one here mentions her
except as a destination
during Sukout and Shavuot
when the Israeli children released
from school run her edges wild.
I want to talk about HaBoneem Beach
just an hour drive from Tel Aviv
where the city Jews sunbathe
and barbeque, setting up haphazard huddles
of two- and three-person tents
along its undeveloped stretch
about how the tents aren’t long enough
so the pale soles
of their children’s feet splay
from the zippered mouths.
We should tell their mothers
that their soles, city soft,
will burn but I can’t recall the words
in Hebrew (kafregel, kveeyat
shemish). Anyway, it’s nice watching
their small heels burrow
skinny trenches in the wet sand
so that when they fall asleep
their feet remain standing.
I want to talk to you about the sea.
From shore
the place where the shallow surf
drops to dangerous depths
is a shade of blue you’ve never seen.
That blue spot doesn’t shift
even as the tide turns
and despite the signs that warn
of undertow
the parents and their children
won’t stop wading out.

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