“Amsterdam is a large port city,”
explains the tourist guide,
“and the Red Light District
started as a service
to sailors.”
“Imagine if you were 6 months on the sea
without seeing a woman;
what would be the first thing
you would want to do
when you got on shore?”
I look at the women behind the window;
I imagine.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
