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This poem is taken from PN Review 254, Volume 46 Number 6, July - August 2020.

My Life as a Wall (translated by Marilyn Hacker) Charles Dobzynski
For Israƫl Eliraz

Neither alive nor dead I am a wall
between two lands
a mouth between two tongues.

                                 *

Not something which offers what can be shared
like birth
but something that separates forever.

                                 *

Not a border
but a moat to hinder
human connections.

                                 *

The tsunami of a glance
is a permanent danger
for those who refuse to see.

                                 *

A wall between two countries
like a dagger
between two ribs.
...


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