Fate
If the Fates come to take
those I love, bear witness to this —
………………………..they will not be victims
………………………..of what the ignorant, or,
………………………..perhaps, the grieving,
………………………..call terror.
……………….
Rockets fly into neighbors’ homes —
………………………..tonight? Tomorrow?
……………………….My own home?
If the Fates come for those I love,
I will not wrap them in white sheets,
lay them at the door of the man
who forced this war. He will not see us.
And if the Fates come for me, well,
there is no wrong in dying. But
bear witness, bear witness to this —
……………………………………I am not killed
……………………………………by a foreign hand.
……………….
Israel. Gaza. May 2021.
……………….
Dragons
There’s a dragon on my old brown desk.
Bought him at the Java store in Tel Aviv.
I know he’s a baby dragon because
his wings are still small, his tail modest.
He cannot fly, breathe fire, or charge, and his legs
seem resigned to immobility.
He sits there on the old oak desk from Beit Jala
where I bought it from a man
who liked to eat at the al-Makhrour restaurant–
………………..before it was demolished in 2000 and again in 2012…
………………..No explanations given.
So here I am in my little flat in Herzeliya,
which no one will demolish–
………………..except to rebuild the neighborhood,
………………..which means I get a bigger flat and my rent paid
………………..while the buildings and gardens get done –
I think to myself that with decades of police at the door —
…………………………………your home will be demolished.
…………………………………You have two hours to get out –
Baby dragons grow.
There are still so many people
who don’t believe in dragons.
But I see one has grown here–
………………………..nothing small, modest or resigned about it.
……………………
War Watching
I know what blood looks like, she said.
I know what a home looks like
after a bomb.
I know what bodies look like.
How parents rock children
against their chests, as if their own hearts
could regenerate the small
death-locked organs.
I don’t need television or the networks
to bring violence home to me.
Our countries provide a package deal.
A life subscription to war.