Born at a Checkpoint in Bethlehem in Palestine, a Poem By Genevieve Cora Fraser

Born at a Checkpoint in Bethlehem in Palestine

By Genevieve Cora Fraser

ccun.org, December 26, 2008

Women hang out the wash

As I stand on the lip edge

Of the hotel roof breathing frost

In the cold night air

Under a Jerusalem sky

A midnight blue dome

Punctured with bullet hole

Stars watch as the drama unfolds

As women hang out their clothes

Peering up into the vast expanse

Eternity waits, lingers, is

Weighing in on the passage

Of time fraught with dangers

We speak of Jews, Christians,

Muslims an Imam calls

Church bells clang

The shofar sounds out

G-d’s sovereignty

Accepts His dominion

As He judges the world

The King's glory is manifested

In the presence of multitudes

Amen

The blessing is given

Echoes through time

Subsides

Cries break the silence

A child is born

In Bethlehem blockaded

Clashing sounds rebound

As gunfire resounds

The cold tile cracks

As I walk along the lip edge

Of existence peering down

Into the town where the Wall

Snakes along like a serpent

In Paradise tempting the world’s

Elite to bite into the apple

Of racism Apartheid’s walled ego

Snaking through deserted streets

Severed

Cut off

A city divided

As settlers gain ground

In East Jerusalem

The West Bank enclosed

Gaza choked and barricaded

The wretched existence

Of a home wrecked nation

Focuses on a chosen few

As a child is born

In obscurity at a checkpoint

At gunpoint His cries pierce

Through the frozen night

Promising new life

Bound to suffering

In Jerusalem in Bethlehem

As the world wakes

To a new dawn

Of a new day

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