Love Poem: Paint Me Ablaze / Lali Tsipi Michaeli

Paint Me Ablaze / Lali Tsipi Michaeli

Paint Me Ablaze


paint me ablaze 
like Rome 
start from the head eyeballs mouth nose 
castle 
hills via neck 

harnessed 
dusty roads 
long hands fingers of 
books 

waist stomach 
kingdom of sorrow 
all the king's seats 
streams of the fields 
and valleys of love 

my thighs and knees will slowly burn 

for a sign of my future shame 
paint 
a birth mark 
my calves that are trained to go stright ahead til the ankles 
convents 
feet 
toes 
the king's army 

like an air my name will burn 
my meaning will be strewn from my ashes 
any sense from my tendons will be free




translated from Hebrew:
Michael Simkin