Egypt and Gaza have a long, rich and unhappy past. Egypt has never been happy with Gaza, and gave it to Israel just to get rid of it. Personally, I liked the people I met in Gaza – stubborn and strong. When I was there in 74-5 they were also often friendly and as excited to meet me as I was to meet them. I think about each person I met there – here’s one example from back then:
Gaza 1974
I
After dinner I’m alone with the grandmother,
while the men talk business
and wives feed the children
bumping each other in the hidden kitchen.
I am a guest, an English teacher new
to the Middle East, without tongue,
and I cannot play in pantomime
like my daughter with the children and the goats.
In this bare room
the old woman talks
as if eventually I must understand
her language
since she speaks in the feminine.
II
When I cannot answer, even after her long
probing looks, she shrugs,
takes her crochet hook from a pocket,
and points out the window
to a girl
dancing solemnly alone.
Her gnarled hands, wound with pink wool, move easily,
and soon she is making lovely rosettes in the bodice.
I take the hook and try to imitate, slip,
slip again, finally latch through the last eye
to pull the rose together. She smiles,
I show her a stitch of my own
which she examines, unravels,
then duplicates with a flourish.
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