*Reprinted with permission from Marjorie Agosín, ed., Miriam’s Daughters: Jewish Latin American Women Poets, Santa Fe: Sherman Asher Publishing, 2001.
I am a child
of so many places
left behind:
Siliviri, Turkey
Goworowo, Poland
Linka, Byelorussia
Havana, Cuba
Kibbutz Gash, Israel
141-41 85th Street,
Jamaica, New York,
sixth floor corner apartment
next door to a boy from India
who leaned out the window
to catch a butterfly
and died oozing a stream
of memories from his ears.
The only things
I have retained from the journey
are my Spanish
of too many accents
a bad temper
fear of Jewish ghosts
and an inability
to lose in love.
Translated by Ruth Behar
