Two Little Houses

In North Tel Aviv, there are two houses. One is at 10 Ussishkin Street. 

It is a shy house. It hides from the street and doesn’t like having its photo taken. 

The second is at Amos 19, just two blocks away. 

It is not shy at all. 

The houses are good friends. Old friends. 

They keep in touch, using rotary phones. 

They send New Year’s cards to one another in the mail. 

A milkman delivers milk every morning in glass bottles. Of course, with the cream on top. 

And in the winter evenings, a kersosene stove keeps them warm. 

All the other houses are gone. There are tall buildings now, nothing but tall buildings.

Some of them have been up for years. 

Others are being built as we speak,  new tall buildings made of concrete. With cheap fixtures.

And no character to speak of. 

But the two little houses persist. They resist. They protest. 

I have a feeling it is all in vain.

Someday they will leave the neighborhood as well. Making place for other neighbours. 

As small as they are in stature, they are the two monuments of North Tel Aviv.

Two bastions of resistance. 

Two memorials commemorating how we used to be. 

And never will be.