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Rinat Harel holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art and studied creative writing at Emerson College, where she received the 2015 Nonfiction Award. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter England, she is working on a collection of interlinked stories that revolve around life in Israel. 

To and Fro

Rinat Harel

1.
On a snowy day, I cross
the bridge over
the train tracks. They
chant: When
you were a child, you died,
when you were a child
you died.

2.
I was a child when
I died in an airless
cattle car.
A girl on the edge of womanhood.
There was shoving, tumbling,
weeping silenced by
shouts and barks.
The mossy
smell of soggy garb. My burning
thirst.

Schnell, schnell!

Did I know
what all that meant? Did I
sense what lies ahead?

3.
Across the bridge
kids scamper in the schoolyard. Nearby,
a row of budding magnolias, anxious
to burst in velvety pink.

The train tracks screech
through the snowy plane,
but I listen
to the joyful squeals of the children.

— Rinat Harel

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