Salonnière

Salonnière

written by: Tali Cohen Shabtai

I live with a vieille dame
Among her Prozac and cigarettes
She welcomed me by a first introduction
With Anne Sexton’s book in 1967

She gave me a contract to stay neurotic in her
House
And behave like a
Petite Muette beside her bedroom

At that time she looked like a hostess in a house of ill
Repute,
Walking like a salonnière in her salon littéraire (never with visitors)
With that appearance of maison-close, then
She invited men to clean her old furniture
From new dust

I met her first seven years ago,
The time it took for her foundation
To blend un parfume
To her taste
Less than the time it took me to find
The favored delicacy for my
Lady cat

I barely could read her language, but –
We were aware to the provocation of
Douleur-pain.

She would not be surprised by any disgrace
I would bring into my life
Neither by any sensation I would choose to have
In my colors le matin.

She warned me from being a
Poète maudit – a cursed poet.
I watched her, I knew.

It all started with a clothes cuprard.

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• About
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Tali Cohen Shabtai

Tali Cohen Shabtai, is a poet who was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1980. Tali began writing poetry at young age of six, she was an excellent literature student. She began publishing her impressions in the school’s newspaper. She firstly published her poetry in a respectful literature magazine in Israel, the “Moznayim” at age 15. Tali studied at the "David Yellin College of Education" for a bachelor's degree. She has written three poetry books: “Purple diluted in a black’s thick“ (bilingual, 2007), “Protest” (bilingual, 2012), “Nine years away from you” (2018). She is a member of the Hebrew Writers Association and the Israeli Writers Association in the state of Israel. In 2014, Cohen Shabtai also participated in a Norwegian documentary about poets' lives called "The Last Bohemian" - "Den Siste Bohemien", and screened in the cinema in Scandinavia. By 2020, her fourth book of poetry will be published which will also be published in Norwegian.

Latest posts by Tali Cohen Shabtai (see all)

• Salonnière - February 27, 2020