Qalandiya

It’s a war zone, said the commander who told us to leave.

My response, It’s a civilian area, sounded stupid even to me.

Because he’s right.

Qalandiya is a war zone.

Qalandiya is also a war zone.

It’s hard to breathe at Qalandiya.

It’s hard to breathe, also at Qalandiya.

Hundreds of police stationed along the Shu’afat road.

Who and what are they guarding; against whom and against what are they guarding?

Actually, they’re not here to guard

They’re here to erase

The Mark of Cain.*

The stain remained on the wall / David Avidan

Someone tried to scrape the stain from the wall.

But the stain was too dark (or the opposite – too bright)

Anyway – the stain remained on the wall.

So I called the painter to paint the wall green.

But the stain was too bright.

So I hired a man to expertly whitewash the wall.

But the stain was too dark.

Anyway – the stain remained on the wall.

So I took a kitchen knife and tried to scratch the stain from the wall.

The knife was so sharp it hurt.

I’d sharpened it only yesterday.

And yet.

And I clenched an ax in my fist and battered the wall, but stopped in time.

I dunno why I suddenly got the idea,

That the wall mightopple but the stain would still remain.

Anyway – the stain remained on the wall.

And when they stood me against the wall, I asked to stand right next to it.

And protected it with broad chest (Who knows:  perhaps)

And when they sprayed my back blood poured, but only from the back.

They’re firing.

And I believed so very strongly that the blood would cover the stain.

Anyway – the stain remained on the wall.

(from:  Brazim Arufei Sfatayyim, Keter Publishing Company)

*The wall on which the picture of Muhammad abu Khdeir, the boy, had been posted was not blank by order of the authorities.

You don’t need the cloth that covered the wall or the picture to remember the boy burned alive.

His image, like his memory, are seared into the collective consciousness.

And who can predict the aftermath of the huge conflagration which was ignited that terrible night?

(The attached photo of the boy is new, pasted, like many others, on a light pole.)