CPTnet
1 August 2007
BETHLEHEM POEM: Gilo Checkpoint*

by Jan Benvie

I can't get her face out of my mind.
Her anguished, pleading face,
that woman at the checkpoint.

Oh, curse my appalling Arabic,
that I could understand so little of what she said.
And yet, I understood enough.
if not words, then actions.

Perhaps emboldened by our presence,
(Westerners, surely they can help?)
she followed us through the first gate,
and pressed her paper against the glass.

No contact between people here!

>From a short distance ahead
I saw the dismissive look of the soldier,
from where, a few moments ago,
a mere flash of my passport
had ensured me easy entry
into this vast checkpoint building.

I watched the woman turn away.

I watched the woman turned away.

*Gilo checkpoint is part of Israel's separation barrier that cuts through
the city of Bethlehem.