فلسطين

Excuse me

Excuse me.

Do you know the way to Palestine?

For the longest time it had been a place only existing in my mind

In the form of biblical stories of old

Or, more recently, as pictures – both still and moving –

hurtling past my almost glazed-over eyes

On small rectangular screens

In the form of the most heinous

of bloody and brutal crimes

committed against its people

in the name of protecting the supposedly more deserving of protection

the meek and feeble

who have apparently been persecuted since the dawn of time

Excuse me.

Do you know the way to Palestine?

Bethlehem and Nazareth –

both distant imaginary locations to my younger naive self

Figures of babes in stables and Wise Arab Men bearing gifts

Nativity scenes in windows and churches

Fragments of this place

etched into the living memory of my own childhood

Milestones

hallmarks

recurring characters and imagery

It’s all I understood then

But now it’s a very different story

Of the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory