Erez Biton (b.1942)

BECOMING A WEAVER


At the Jerusalem School for the Blind
Mister Zvi, the school principal,
would introduce me to visitors
and say:
“This boy
when he grows up
we will make for him
one strap for the left shoulder
one strap for the right shoulder
and turn him into a weaver
who will weave rugs
for kings and princes.”

I did not become a weaver
and yet
at times
during moments of grace
my poems turn into
small rugs
for all and sundry