Page 66 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015

Netanyahu

You don’t need a periscope

or a microscope

to see another human being

guiding a child

hand on shoulder of a child

arranging a coverlet over a sleeping child --

You don’t need a stethoscope

to imagine a heartbeat.

What does it mean when one person thinks

others deserve nothing?

What is that called?

If you know what it is called why keep

doing it?

You don’t need a skewer for broiling

or a paring knife for seeing inside.

Notes

My Palestinian father, Aziz Shihab, was a newspaper journalist most of his life. Though

generally a congenial, gracious spirit, he was highly annoyed by headlines that didn’t

actually fit their stories—a more common predicament for print journalists than many

might believe. He resented poor grammar—in English or Arabic—and was exquisitely

careful with his own. And he was saddened by displays of inequity and small-

mindedness—in society, religion, politics—and the ongoing false spins about the “great