Femme Fatale by Tali Cohen Shabtai

I enjoy being this kind

Of Femme Fatale

To be pleased over a poem

And not over a man

On my way

I do not leave

Any traces

Of my virginal womb

Behind

They wonder

If I behave

The way I live

My poetry

Much more

"Maiko"

I show them things that

You'd only show to

Enuchs

They want

To learn Hebrew

And taste

My poetry

First

I decided to impose

Their words upon

My symbols

They're always

Gone

When I do so.

*

Tali Cohen Shabtai is an Israeli poet. Born in Jerusalem, she began writing poetry at the age of six. At the age of fifteen her poems appeared in Moznayim, a prestigious Israeli magazine. She has written three books of of poetry since then, the most recent of them being Nine Years Away From You (2018). She spent some years in Oslo and the USA and her poems are noted for expressing spiritual and physical exile. Her work has been translated into many languages.