THE HOME KEY
- Details
- Published on Friday, 17 February 2012 14:46
Primo Levi (a Jewish writer) "Everybody has their Jews, and for the Israelis it's the Palestinians"
Poem By Ruth Tenne
His veins-grooved hands grip a rusty chain
linked to a two-teethed , chunky jarred key.
His stringy, tobacco- specked beard rests on a weedy chest,
soaking up water-steamed smoke,
curling out of a piped Hookah's "jaw" .
"Marhaba" Abu-Ali welcomes guests to his tent.
Wrapping reverently his treasured key,
he places it solemnly in a small pouch,
dangling from a shabby, worn-out robe.
There the key motionlessly waits
to return to Abu-Ali's stolen home and land.
But I was only a child then and blissfully unaware
of the Nakba -catastrophe- of the year forty eight.
My long-forgotten friend has a golden chain
holding a sparkling , brassy, super-cut key .
It safely locks his white-painted house,
built on Abu-Ali's old home and ground.
A high-speed shiny car is haughtily parked
where Abu Ali's chicken used to run about.
Ancient silver-leafed olive trees were uprooted in haste,
the orange orchard has gone without a trace
Barrack- like concreted new town was built
to replace Abu-Ali's village and fields.
It has no memory of the stone-built houses and flat- roof huts,
clung to a hilly terrain of forsaken past.
But I am not a child anymore and is fully aware:
Abu-Ali will perish with his home key in his hands,
harbouring a futile yearning to return.
My long -forgotten friend is there to stay.
and I? Living my splintered life in a far-flung land ,
keep seeking justice for Abu-Ali and Palestine.
My youth has unnoticeably slipped by, but I am still on the march,
shouting "free, free Palestine".
A personal appeal? A guilt-infused confession? an agitated self-expression?
I could not break away from my soul-crushing past,
even if I sometimes try.
Yet, I know, words of truth alone are not enough, and there is no one out there to listen , or act -
I should, you should, the deceitful masters of arms should.
We are all on a trial, but where is the judge
to let justice being unlocked and done?
