The Pedestal Magazine > Archives > ISSUE FORTY: Jun-Aug (07) > Poetry >Elisha Porat - Homecoming (translated from the Hebrew by Eddie Levenston)

They waited for him to come home:
the trimmed lawn, the tree in its saucer,
the faded plastic chairs, the rusty
gate, creaking on its hinges.
Mother, brother, father, sister,
frozen in time: wilting, transparent,
bowed down with weight of days.
And then, when suddenly he comes in,
everything begins to move, the lawn thickens,
the tree bears fruit, the plastic
chairs are scrubbed, the gate turns
and creaks, moving endlessly.
If only he would come in, come home.
The bubble of time bursts. The scarred heart
beats again. Slowly they go down
on their knees, lift their eyes
to him in grief, in gratitude.









Elisha Porat was the 1996 winner of Israel's Prime Minister's Prize for Literature. He has published twenty-one volumes of fiction and poetry, in Hebrew, since 1973. His work has appeared in translation in Israel, the United States, Canada and England. The English translation of his short story collection, The Messiah of LaGuardia, was released by Mosaic Press in 1997. The English translation of his second story collection, Payback, was published in 2002 by Wind River Press. His new novel, Episode, was just released by Y&H Publishers. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Midstream, Rattle, Oyster Boy Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Boston Review, and The Paumanok Review.
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