The Minister of Poetry

To Yehuda Amichai

We were walking by the Labor Party Office
one night on Hayarkon Street.
The lights were on,
and you said, “They are choosing
the ministers for the new government.
I should go in and tell them
they need me as the Minister of Poetry.”
But instead we went on
to read at the American Embassy.

There was a large crowd there,
and drinks and little sandwiches,
a short speech
by some professor
and someone else important
saying something
about a shortlist
for the big prize,

and the evening was over
without a single political word.

But you remain, for me,
from that night on
always
the Minister of Poetry.


 

© Karen Alkalay-Gut