I now have three dear children fair;
All girls – batot in Hebrew tongue,
Or say in fact I should banot,
For bat defies the common rule.
Natasha Rose the eldest is
By five years to the very month,
With golden hair and sky-blue eyes
For me she represents the Sun.
Tamar (the fruit bat) second be –
Yet also first. A night-bird born,
This Moon-child will in five day’s time
Her fifth year celebrate of life.
The last, though not indeed the least,
Is Tal – or dew; now but a month.
Like robin young she peeps and chirps,
Child of the Earth perhaps she’ll be.
Jerusalem
20 May 1992