Spring comes
On the top of the houses
Triangular roofs covered in spring slime
Dripping on little boys
Covering their nipples in green goo
Warm wind blowing
The smell of pies make nostrils erect
Bones under skin, smoothly circling joints
No clicks at all
No clicks all smooth
Basketballs fly in clear skies
A cockroach in the corner dark
Contemplates its young
Mom and dad
One lonesome ago
been to Zeta Reticule
Ain’t Zeta amazing?
Tell me about it while we drink
Wine and sprite
Let the kids play, and tell me about it
Tell me about it and let the doors lock out the wind
But before they speak
The doorbell rings
Betty flies over on butterfly wings
It’s the neighbors
The warrens
looking great
Bloated in love
of Christ
A relic hanging round the missus’ neck
“Spring time is the time of the Devil”
Says Lorraine
“I can see the eyes of Satan behind your eyes”
(Betty)
“I see the enemy of mankind behind your eyes Betty”
(Says Lorraine)
“We are both women you and I Betty”
(Says Lorraine)
“Aren’t we beautifully weak?
(says Lorraine)
Kiss the relic
on my neck.
It’s part of the true cross- there, the Savior, Abandoned…. “
Barney hill comes out of the bathroom with flush.
“Hey there” he says.
Lorraine’s head spins like a weather vane
A demon kisses her Adam’s apple
The men go to the kitchen to fix scotch
“The suburbs Ed”
(Says Barney)
“The suburbs, Ed, they look so different when you look at them from the skies”
“Well I bet”
(Says Ed)
“When looking from above I feel so lonely Barney”
(Says Ed)
“I bet”
(says Barney)
Lorraine’s head turns like a water-sprinkler.
“My loneliness, Barney,”
(Says Ed)
“Is killing me.
But I must confess. I still believe.
Still believe”
— Amir Naaman, born 1984 Israel, now lives in Berlin. He has published short stories and poems in the Israeli literary magazines Majan, Lot and Eruvin. His first novel Jonkei hadvasch (The Hummingbirds) was published by Tangier press in 2020. He has previously worked as a postman, cook, and bookseller. He now works as a personal trainer in Berlin-Neukölln.