Eternal Servant: the constant widening of hips

ELISHA PORAT

Women never come to terms
with the constant widening of
their hips; in their wiliness
they try to cheat the nature of woman:
cutting on the bias, camouflaging,
lengthening, in denial of the natural
law of the flesh. But I am
an eternal servant of your body,
I am happy when it thickens
and happy too when it narrows:
a beloved place, a sad source,
from whence I came, and to which,
alas, I will never return.

Translated from the Hebrew by Cindy Eisner

Elisha Porat writes on a kibbutz in Israel.

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