Red, yellow, blue — houses by the edge of the northern sea
I flip through my notes from ages ago
ships, mast to mast
courtyards with stairs and lanterns
clay noses in a sculpture museum
Degas, with his fondness for plump ballerinas
coffee in the stillness of a dim-lit café
streets heavy with the scent of waffles
Danish women, legs bare
cyclists doing their thing
silver spoons in a shop window
a guy pulls away from me
that’s not what friends do, he thinks.
Now I believe that’s true.
Elena Shakhnovsky is a Tel Aviv-based writer and poet, currently in the Creative Writing Program at Bar-Ilan University. Previously a journalist, playwright, and screenwriter in Russia, she has been published in Modern Drama, Article, Berlin.Berega, and elsewhere.