Milk Underground

Ronnie Someck: Ronny Someck was born in Baghdad in 1951 and came to Israel as a young child. He has worked with street gangs, and currently teaches literature and leads creative writing workshops. He has published 11 volumes of poetry. His work has been translated into 41 languages. Hana Inbar: Hana Inbar is a native of Israeli and the daughter of Yossel Birstein, a noted Israeli writer. She and Robert have also co-translated a book of Yossel's flash fiction stories, And So is the Bus, Jerusalem Stories to appear in 2015. Robert Manaster: Robert Manaster is a poet as well as co-translator. His own poems have appeared in many journals including Rosebud, Spillway, Image, International Poetry Review, and The Literary Review. Currently he is an Assistant Editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal.

• Table of ContentsA Patriotic Poem ........................................................................................................................ 240 ................................................................................................................................................. 4Courting ...................................................................................................................................... 64 Pieces of Advice for a Dancing Girl ...................................................................................... 8A Fifth Piece of Advice for a Dancing Girl ........................................................................... 10Corks ......................................................................................................................................... 12Stupid Beauty ........................................................................................................................... 14In Front of Aphrodite .............................................................................................................. 17One-Man Mafia........................................................................................................................ 20Alcoholic Alphabet .................................................................................................................. 22A Footnote to a Pedagogical Poem ......................................................................................... 25Kitchen Sink Drama ................................................................................................................ 28December 28 ............................................................................................................................. 31Ararat Express ......................................................................................................................... 33Transparent .............................................................................................................................. 35That ........................................................................................................................................... 38Abraham on the Way to the Sacrifice .................................................................................... 40Biting into her Beauty ............................................................................................................. 42John Doe ................................................................................................................................... 44The Milk Underground ........................................................................................................... 47Mr. Auschwitz .......................................................................................................................... 49Beaten ....................................................................................................................................... 51Guillotine .................................................................................................................................. 53Cesar Vallejo or 12 Lines on the Bread of Shame ................................................................ 56A Love Poem for Wislawa Szymborska ................................................................................ 58Field Sentences. Nature Poems. ..................................................................................... 60Five Cypresses .......................................................................................................................... 62The Milk Underground - iiButterflies from Mount Saint Savino ..................................................................................... 64Blackbird .................................................................................................................................. 66Two blackbirds ........................................................................................................................ 68Beneath the Aetna Volcano and a Meditation on God as the Greatest Erotic Director ... 70Street Sentences. City Poems. ......................................................................................... 73Baghdad .................................................................................................................................... 75Katmandu. Above the Rice Fields ......................................................................................... 78Barcelona. A Bird on Balcony's Railing ............................................................................... 80San Francisco. A Sonnet on a City Left Without Locks ..................................................... 82Tel-Aviv at Night ..................................................................................................................... 85