Jerusalem by Naomi Shihab Nye

Old Jerusalem

This Post is dedicated to Thomas C.


"Let's be the same wound if we must bleed.
Let's fight side by side, even if the enemy
is ourselves: I am yours, you are mine."
-Tommy Olofsson, Sweden

 I'm not interested in

Who suffered the most.
I'm interested in
People getting over it.

Attack on School in Gaza

Once when my father was a boy
A stone hit him on the head.
Hair would never grow there.
Our fingers found the tender spot
and its riddle: the boy who has fallen
stands up.

Gaza Man with injured son

A bucket of pears
in his mother's doorway welcomes him home.
The pears are not crying.

Gaza Woman Weeping
Later his friend who threw the stone
says he was aiming at a bird.
And my father starts growing wings.

Each carries a tender spot:
something our lives forgot to give us.
A man builds a house and says,
"I am native now."

Israel OPC destruction

A woman speaks to a tree in place
of her son.

Gaza mother holds her dead son

And olives come

Palestinian woman hugging Olive tree after Israeli soldier destroys it

A child's poem says,
"I don't like wars,
they end up with monuments."

Gaza War Cemetary with desecrated headstones

He's painting a bird with wings
wide enough to cover two roofs at once.

Israeli Fighter Jet

Why are we so monumentally slow?
Soldiers stalk a pharmacy:
big guns, little pills.
If you tilt your head just slightly
it's ridiculous.

Residential Pharmacy in Gaza destroyed by Israeli planes

There's a place in my brain
Where hate won't grow.

Children in the Westbank

I touch its riddle: wind and seeds

Something pokes us while we sleep

It's late but everything comes next.

An Angel in Gaza by Christina Ruiz Cortina

Jerusalem written by Naomi Shihab Nye

Children of Gaza by Doc Jazz