By Batnadiv HaKarmi –
May the Place console you
amongst the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem
– Traditional Jewish blessing to mourners
Hamakom yenahem — may the Place
console, may your room
be a comfort, may your house
embrace; may you shelter
in her arms, may she kiss
your face. For behold
there is place in me–
God swears.
Hide in the maw of mercy
as storms sweep past.
“Mercy”- rahem -the
Hebrew word for “womb”.
A synonym–“grave.” Dilation
the “opening of the tomb.”
Shall I travail and not birth, saith the Lord;
Shall I birth and stop the womb?
She cleared a space within –
womb swelling with world –
slap the back, that first breath –
my baby screams the sky down.
I am a charnel house
trailing blood and flesh.
Walking graveyard, squirting milk,
which never should be mixed with meat
because death and life
cannot be consumed
in a single swallow.
Batnadiv HaKarmi is a Jerusalem based painter and writer
