Israeli Summer by Janine Rich

Kaitz Israeli (Israeli Summer)

-was the name of the movie marathon playing on yes.vod that summer The trailer played     constant nostalgic music droning over images of young, dark haired actresses.   The heat was numbing the kind that eats you from the inside out but on the screen they were cool glass unbothered and the little tzeva adom would come pinging up at the bottom of the screen resting at the waists of the actors floating calm the dead sea-   Alarm in Ashkelon And then Alarm in Be’er Sheva.   And when the wailing sirens finally climbed into our window we peeled ourselves off the lightly salted couch       moved into the hallway seeking structural solidity our bare feet red toenails thrown up against the wall legs cooled on linoleum.   In the beginning it thrilled us this savage delightful violence Now we do not meet each other’s eyes. -you are so beautiful when you’re scared- and we both know you not afraid of the rocket softly falling miles above but afraid of my guilt   We knew it would end knew we would walk back to the couch and return to our Israeli summer. You taught me if we did not change the station we were safe - Janine is a writer, student and aspiring optimist with absolutely no idea how to write a biographical statement. She currently lives in Istanbul.