Seven definitions of Israel

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If you were a masked man in my garden

The police would not recognise you as its owner

They would warn you to leave and you would laugh in their face.

 

If you removed your mask and my family by force from my home

my neighbours would not watch and then walk away,

police would cordon me off from my own path.

 

If I rebelled and threw a stone at your face for stealing my land

Would you kill my wife and children for your anger?

Imagine a police station moving to my sacred bed.

 

Picture an old man with numbers on his arm shuddering by burst gas pipes

I think he would see the gassing of my child and help me

I think we could be friends, press each other’s wounds.

 

Picture a sea of children, eyes pitted like Palestinian olives

Picture them being dragged by the legs to fists

Six numbers on arms add to nothing learnt.

 

If I left my house, where would I go and who would take me?

My children are walking into the sea wanting to die

This defines being young and Palestinian.