Another Time of Love

Haggit Grossman

It was another time of love.

As long as a refuge remained, we found it

Whispering and wet.

Outside, there arose ignorant rulers,

Who compiled lists of banned books

And commanded artists to swear loyalty

To the state.

And in the refuge we hid love away.

It had a velvet touch

And consisted entirely of letters.

If it emerged from hiding,

If would be forbidden.

Yet we knew that if we didn’t proclaim the injustice suffered by others

The ignorant rulers would reach us too,

Those of us holed up in our hiding place

Concealing love.

poet writs in Hebrew.