Fall in Connecticut

This semester, we will be reading a wide range of Yehuda Amicha's poetry (upon JSF's recommendation). Amicha (1924-2000) was one of Israel's most well-known poets, and his verse will connect in many ways to Foer's works. Reading his poetry this summer, I came across a poem that I found all too fitting in its melancholy as we return to the routines of fall. Enjoy.

Fall in Connecticut
by Yehuda Amichai (trans. by Chana Bloch)

Leaves fall from the trees
but words multiply on people.
Small red fruits prepare
to stay under the snow and stay red.
The wild games of children
have been domesticated.
On the wall, pictures of winners and losers,
you can't tell them apart.
The rhythmical strokes of the swimmers
have gone back into the stopwatches.
On the deserted shore, folded beach chairs
chained to each other, the slaves of summer.
The suntanned lifeguard will grow pale inside his house
like a prophet of wrath in peacetime.

I shift mental states
like the gears of a car,
from animal to vegetable
and then to stone.