POEM: A Man in Darkness
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Your presence in darkness: in your mother’s belly, at night
as you sleep beneath the blanket, in a military guard
post, in a prison hole, in the belly of the earth.
In the shadows your body’s movements are hidden, but so are
the movements of your enemy (you might
rub your nose, he might pull out a gun).
The darkness births monsters. You search for a friend,
and in the murk only the outlines of God’s face are clear.
So clear that you release your touch on the warm trigger
and reach out your hand to touch the whiskers of his beard.
Translated from the Hebrew by Alexandra Berger-Polsky
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