My grandmother by Alexandra Palace pond,
Her hair like steel wool blown underneath the sky of copper.
Ducks picked their nits as the wind turned the lake’s face white
Till it wrinkled and shone in the glower –
Not a word of that time remains
Only the ducks and the wind and the water
And my mother’s mother wherever she is
Now remains where the duck’s wings may flutter.
Not a sound, not a trace of her mind
But the water still glitters, to shatter.
Atar Hadari’s “Songs from Bialik: Selected Poems of H. N. Bialik” (Syracuse University Press) was a finalist for the American Literary Translators’ Association Award, his own “Rembrandt’s Bible” published by Indigo Dreams. His Pen Translates award winning “Lives of the Dead: Collected Poems of Hanoch Levin” is out now from Arc Publications.
Featured image: The Boathouse Alexandra Park [filters applied] cc-by-sa/2.0 by Peter Hyde
