i wish i could live closed eyes

i wish i could live
with closed eyes
wouldn’t see
the rockets
tearing through the sky
over tel aviv

only the peaceful coolness
chilling on the beach
clubs
and vegan restaurants

i wish i wouldn’t see
religious jews
lynching arabs
on israeli streets
religious jews
who pray from the same siddur
to the same sweet little almighty
as i do

i wish i wouldn’t see
photos of dead children
on instagram

photos of dead israeli children
and photos of dead gazan children

i wish i only saw the sort of videos
where egyptian and israeli border guards
on both sides of the border
dance together
to the same A-WA song

or come to that
i wish i wouldn’t see
border guards
and borders
at all…

i wish i could live
with closed ears

not hear the hysteric crying
of the arab family in east jerusalem
being evicted
by the israeli police
from the house
they’ve been living in

and i wish
i wouldn’t hear
after darkness falls
in jerusalem hills
the rumble of barrage
hitting ashdod

only
birds warbling
kids giggling
and pomegranate trees singing
in the wind…

i wish i could live
with a closed mind

believe everything
that is spoken into the microphones

wouldn’t think

in vain

only believe

that truth
has only one face

the one and only

that everything
is the fault of palestinians

or that of apartheid israel

that israel is good
and gaza is bad

or the other way around

i wish i could
live in careless ignorance

be stupid

not shilly-shally
pointlessly
with all the seventy faces of truth

not hesitate
but act

by fire and sword

fight tooth and nail

with rockets and machine guns

to avenge

everything

the past seventy-four years
the past two thousand years

i wish i could
live with a closed heart

not feel the pain of the enemy

mourn only the losses of our tribe

that would be easier

with closed eyes
with closed ears
with a closed mind
with a closed heart

as darkness creeps closer
and the night becomes silent
the rumble of the barrage hitting ashdod
will be heard again

and barukh explodes
from the inside out

because he knows not
how to live with closed eyes