What do you know ?

I am a jewess!

 

I came from a land of

Uniforms-

And you expect me to be able

To fix a world of

Hostile countries ?

 

I have absorbed Antisemitism racism

And forced numerous times

To hug the name of a false

Homeland 

In the diaspora

Or in the superpowers

For them the maps

Have done very well

With huge population sizes

Where

There aren’t many family names

Like mine

To carry  my nation’s flag

And my father’s yarmulke .

 

What do you know about racism?

 

During the history  

One of the evil that women struggled with,

Is rape 

No matter what race she belonged to.

 

Do you understand?

And it's very well known

Tactic of war:

Conquerors arrive to conquer nations and,

Rape women to prove their superiority.

 

Whether it was a black slave woman

Raped by white men during   

Slavery since the early

17th century;

 

Or, in the Holocaust

When Jewish women were raped by the “master race” in

Early 1933.

 

What do I know ?

 

The murderer

Who stopped George’s                       breathing

 

He wouldn’t commit suicide because his knee was more

Important to him

From end of time of a solitary living soul or of six millions

 

Listen to me, I do know.

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Tali Cohen Shabtai is a poet born in Jerusalem, Israel. She began writing poetry at the age of six. Tali’s poems express spiritual and physical exile. She is studying her exile and freedom paradox. Tali’s three poetry books are Purple Diluted in a Black’s Thick (bilingual 2007), Protest (bilingual 2012) and Nine Years From You (2018). In 2021, her fourth book of poetry will be published in Norway. Her literary works have been translated into many languages as well.