Koalas in Hadera Woods

ELISHA PORAT

Golden koalas dance there
In the heights of the treetops, leaping in front of me
And offering me their honey in flower-bowls;
And rosin that gives off the sharp scent of myrtle,
They salute me in their slothful idleness,
Hanging like memories in the the thick wood
That darkens before me, sundering out of my years,
As if they know that I am hurrying now
To the town railway station,
The renovated platform, to part from my dear ones;
My beloved; my life; at the edge of the wood, opposite
The dunes of Haldera West station.

Translated from the Hebrew by Asher Harris

Elisha Porat writes on a kibbutz in Israel.

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