Gilad Meiri

Morning, October 7, 2023
To my late kinsman Roee Munder

They cut your biography half-way,

didn’t let you complete it.

Maybe that is why I can’t manage

to sum you up in an elegy

 

Memory flutters –

a fish out of water

body, mind and soul trembling,

refusing to come together

under the poem’s stretcher

 

maybe also because now,

five days later, you haven’t yet

even been laid to rest

in the crumbly loess

after last rites.

 

There has been talk of a mass grave.

Actually, it could suit you

to be gathered unto your buddies,

you who were always the life of the party,

angel of bags of peanuts and crates of beer,

the angel of flowing talk.

 

Your eyes were always ready to aim

wide in wonder, a genial telescopic gaze

erasing any bit of distance.

 

In a thicker-than-blood Liverpool

kinship you were my lens,

my eyes at Kibbutz Nir Oz –

in our Uncle Meir’s home,

the coffee, yeast cake, cigars, and whisky,

the welder of copper birds and our blood.

 

Your camera ambled like a kibbutz dog

rising from its rest to greet a guest,

a rainbow fan in the desert,

June action:

two millimeters of rain

 

a video with a caption:

A very misty morning. You can hear

the heavy dew fall

and the light, easy birdsong.

Why did I wake up so early (September 29, 2023).

 

You were murdered in a mini-Auschwitz

in the northern Negev,

in your home, your castle you loved

with a bit of Jewish black humor:

A jubilant burnt sacrifice

on the Festival of Rejoicing in the Law,

punning on mercy in your last post.

 

You look surprised that a poem

was written about you. Know:

In the world to come,

you‘ll never walk alone.

 

 

 

Translated from Hebrew by Vivian Eden

About the Author

Gilad Meiri (b. Jerusalem, 1965). Ph.D Tel Aviv U. Published 21 books amongst them are seven volumes of poetry, eight poetry anthologies (on soccer, school, prayers, aviation, social protest, sex work and more), and "Popoetica" – a selection of articles and essays on Hebrew poetry motives. He is the Co-founder and Co-manager of Poetry Place. In Poetry Place he is co-founder and co-manager of College of the Literary Arts, "One Square Meter, Jerusalem Poetry Festival", "Nanopoetica" literary magazine and Poetry Place publishing house, Among the awards for his poetry and work are The Prime Minister's literary prize (2008) and The Ministry Culture Prize for Editing (2022).