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.
