The Children I Will Never Have
Liat Rosenblatt
Translated from the Hebrew by Jane Medved
The children I will never have
hug me in their sleep.
I push them in an imaginary stroller,
and from invisible bottles
feed them warm mother’s milk.
The children I will never have
play with the neighbor’s kids,
children who have been kissed
by the sun, and protected by a leafy tree
on a scorching summer’s day.
They climb up a nonexistent rope
and dangle their pale legs
in the kibbutz swimming pool.
The children I will never have
love me to death,
and the smell of death resides
in the rooms of my heart,
and my love for them grows and grows.
Click HERE to read the Hebrew version of this work in Granta Hebrew
Liat Rosenblatt is an ex-Jerusalemite, currently living and working in Ramat Gan. She is working on her first book of poems.
Jane Medved is a poetry editor and a creative nonfiction editor of The Ilanot Review.