Thinking of Israel
A poem imagining peace, freedom of movement and a Middle Eastern Union beyond national borders.
Photo - Mati Shemoelof. Ills. Joseph Sassoon Semah
From reading poems in Gaza to celebrating with his grandmother in Baghdad, Mati Shemoelof imagines a different future for Israel and the Middle East: one shaped by peace, freedom and the movement of people across borders.
Thinking of Israel
Thinking of Israel
Wondering what will be her future
I want to read good news on her newspapers
I want to talk Arabic
And live in peace with her.
I want to read my poems in Gaza then
I want to catch the Middle East train
To Haifa (I will take some more clothes and books) .
I plan to catch the next train so I can party with my grandmother
In Baghdad.
Thinking of Israel
I want to have a Middle Eastern union – the “MEU”.
Like the European Union. Is it a lot to ask?
Israel why do you laugh at me?
I am a dreamer and you already know that Reality is made of dreams.
I want to be free like the air that stretches from Haifa to Beirut.
I want to fly like the birds all over Europe, Asia and Africa
They don’t have any passports. They don’t have any national identity.
They know us better then we know them.
They see our conflicts but still they migrate every year from the start
(Sadly enough I just learned that their number are declining).
Thinking about Israel
Dreaming about normality
Imagining another kind of poetry.
From: Bagdad, Haifa, Berlin. Gedichte. AphorismA Verlag, Berlin, 2019. ISBN 978 3 96575 076 1
Category - Poetry, Poetry Anthologies
Tags: Mati Shemoelof, Thinking of Israel, Poetry, Political Poetry, Israel, Middle East, Middle Eastern Union, Gaza, Haifa, Beirut, Baghdad, Arabic, Peace, Jewish-Arab Identity, Migration, Borders, Freedom of Movement, Diaspora, Rozenberg Quarterly, Bagdad Haifa Berlin