Los Angeles night

Los Angeles night
Bright with the computer screen
Where I sift thru my life
Looking for lost villages.

I speak
People come to hear
As if my words
Will bring back their dead.

Los Angeles night
I want home, habaita
To Jerusalem
Like all the generations

At least my passport
Will let me in
Where everyone thinks
The duty free is heaven

And people drive
As if they just made
God a bet they could
Stay alive

Los Angeles night
And I want a poet
In my bed
That can write only in Hebrew

And travels only so he
Can come back to Tel Aviv
And sigh with relief.

I speak
People come to listen
Like I can end the occupation
Than they invite me for dinner
Talk about politics in English

Los Angeles night
Here there is curfew
You can?t stay up all night
Reading poems in Arabic

There is work
And billboards
And people who think
You can make their conscience clean
Just by speaking

La 14 november. 2004