Similes
You give of yourself only partially
refusing to give me your body
yet my body doesn’t give up, it persists
Am I not like Ahab
chasing across the vast ocean
after a white whale
a primordial creature of the depths
whose formidable motion
may yet break my boat
sink it under the breakers
Still, I’d rather stick to the eastern mentality
to depict my state of utter sentimentality
I’ve become addicted to chasing after deer
I’m the hunter with an arrow in his heart
I’m the hunted hunter
hunted by the deer
.
by Mordechai Geldman
from Halachti Shanim Le-Tzidcha
publisher: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Mossad Bialik, 2011
translation: 2013, Tsipi Keller