All the sights of the world were seen in my neighborhood:
Lily’s cinema-stables and Yoram’s candy dungeon,
The scent of oranges and jasmine, bald palm trees.
A trickster flashed his dollars in 1960s poverty.
A bar mitzvah in bittersweet chocolate
In the run-down hall of the party hacks.
Without guests, poor neighbors sat at paper tables.
On Beersheva Street, the heat stood still, children played, heavy women
On balconies clicked their tongues and we knew that Ramat Isaac was the world..
In the east, the legendary Pardes school in the sand.
Mysterious teachers piled burdens on us.
In the morning, the teacher Bilha revealed herself in all her holiness
“The mountains of Ephraim collected a fresh young sacrifice.
Hush, dear friend, and rest in peace.
Like you we shall sacrifice our lives for the nation.”
And the colossal corpse
Lay on Mt Ephraim in the cold and rain,
North of Mt Leviathan, extinct volcano.
To the west, the Modi’in River, and on its far bank,
The land of Givatayim.
The cobbler, strong-armed Yosef, devotes himself to the neighbors’ shoes.
To the south, the alley Hill Street, an orphan girl emerged
To lose her mind on the porch,
To the one-eyed moon in Ramat Isaac.  
We watched winter arrive in a farm garden, cold inside the houses.
We hid ourselves from the heavy rain under seven blankets of the world in our rooms.
Yosef the greengrocer, amid arak fumes, endured the burden of his crates like Atlas.
Creaking swings, and the scent of lead trees in the Bar Ilan park.
From the balcony we watched
Chayek’s sons memorize the Bible
At their mother’s urging.
Esther Yehezkel from Dr. Cohen Street became Queen Esther.
Yael Sharon from 101st Street became the Lily of the Valley.
We married, among cats, fish, newspapers.
Avishai Braverman went off to the world’s riches.
Orly Steinhart became a beauty queen.
The world began in plots of sand,
Then we soared to Jerusalem.
Everyone fled to run their lives,
And there was no more Ramat Isaac in the world, never was,
Between the skies of Modi’in Street and Ha-ro-aye Avenue
Hidden between the land of Givatayim and Ramat Gan
Among mountains and valleys
In the sandy landscape of an unsown land.