Three Colors

ELISHA PORAT

To Seymour Mayne

On Memorial Day I go up
to the small clearing near the military section.
In the northwest corner
we have placed a grey basalt stone
and a white limestone has been placed
towards the southern corner.
And between them, under the fine sand,
rests our loamy soil,
reddish.

And when the loudspeaker thunders the prayer,
I close my eyes
and see the three colors
descending before me, swallowed
in the deepening shadows of the rocks.

Translated from the Hebrew by Cindy Eisner

Elisha Porat writes on a kibbutz in Israel.

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