Poem: A Universe of Lines towards Israel, by Barzilai K.

POEM: A Universe of Lines towards Israel

I have always enjoyed driving on that long road. I would drive alone by myself, the car was full of things, and people. Looking back, I saw the empty seats and a wide sun ray lighting a part of that emptiness.

I always looked at the dashboard, enjoyed its watches, its lights, its niches, and its brown surfaces. At the same time, the dashboard always was looking at me, but I have never talked to it... I just caressed the dash with my fingers, hand, and eyes. I enjoyed the smooth and monotonous buzzing coming from the engine... and the agreeable swinging of the metal body...

I used to look at the horizon in front of me. When I turned my eyes to the right and to the left, I could feel the immense contrast. The motionless present compared to the very fast flowing of time by my side towards the remote past. I was the center of that Universe, without realizing!

In that Universe there were lots of light variations according to the part of the day. There were streetlights sparkling along the road before the early morning in the cold winter… sometimes in the rain... a sunlight storm within the central day... soft golden light when at the sundown... and mystery at night.

When the sunset was being born and a bit earlier, a coquette female voice would very often sing a delicious melody in the distance that I hardly could hear. That melody spread the full length and width of that universe. That light was always impregnated by another nostalgic light marbled with thin lines of joy.

I never wondered about the reason for my loneliness among so many people and why I didn't own anything among so many things. I didn't question the world about that, but I remained silent. I let it scape my heart and mind, so that I could feel the depth, and infinite nuances of my existence.
The road always would point toward the East... always... once and again towards the East... always the East! When the sunset of my life starts to cross the sky and I look for peace in Sefarad... All the paths in front of me line themselves towards the Orient. It has been always like that since the very moment that I was born in this world, but I didn’t know! How could I know!

​Barzilai Kellajer