Two for Michael (translated by Gabriel Levin)

In memory of Michael Sgan Cohen

A Visit

We sat in the 'office'
a small, walled-in balcony
next to a table crammed with books, drawings, tobacco
smoking accessories, papers, diaries, art journals
Michael flips through while talking saying something or other
a tiny tree of life made of wood
from parts of a child's old construction kit
planted on one leg
in an open box filled with whatnot
and leaning on a wall
of rough chiselled stone - the building outside-in
at one point he took something from the box and the tree wavered and fell,
he picked it up
'Can't have the tree of life topple over'
and set it back in place with one hand, a bit askew
...