In advance of the Portsmouth Performers for Palestine event, brought to you in association with Star & Crescent, the University of Portsmouth, the Universities of Sanctuary and Unite the Union, we present a poem by writer and S&C Community Reporter Richard Peirce, who will be performing at the gig.
The Key
An old mulberry tree gives freely its shade
outside the shop and café
on the main street of Nabi Saleh.
The old man sits, drinks tea,
A red and white Kufiya wrapped
Around his head
Short beard, long since turned grey
his stick resting against his thigh.
His rheumy eyes focused on a memory,
the day his mother pressed it
into the same hand that fondles it today,
a blackened key, hanging from his leather belt.
A boy of eight,
the day the militias’ trucks raised the dust
as they swept into the village square.
The last day he saw his parents, his brothers.
A day of wailing, of red stained dirt,
of air buckled by heat and grenade.
No stone remains,
No cedar wood door
No shuttered window or olive grove.
Houses, graves obliterated,
except from the memory of the boy
who was found among the other orphans
by the Yaffa gate in the Holy City.
Shahed, sitting next to him, knows the story,
speaks softly, not wanting to break the dreaming –
words she has learned to speak each day, like a prayer.
‘We will return, great grandfather –
Tomorrow,
in Deir Yassin.’
You can see Richard and other performers perform on June 11th. Book free tickets for the event here.
Image courtesy of Portsmouth Performers for Palestine.
