Believe it or not, Palestinians still fall in love, and the most common problem facing couples is forced separation. Since Israel began its illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, more than 650,000 Palestinians have been detained at least once, representing approximately twenty per cent of the current total Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories, the highest percentage of detainees of a nation in the world.
Those exclude the number of couples who can’t live together because Israel created laws to prevent Arab spouses from crossing certain areas, in their own country, to get married or be reunited. One can imagine the number of broken hearts.
Some Palestinian women have the habit of reading their fortunes in their cups of coffee after drinking, always looking for good news.
Separation
By Iqbal Tamimi
She sketched him in the froth of her coffee
hoping he would never leave
She could not turn off the siren
or the storm that leaped
inside her cup
She saw the soldiers
chasing him down the track
ordering him to surrender
The shackles were howling
Both of them knew
there is no turning back
Echoes died
and tears were shed
Their hopes started to fall
like autumn leaves
Their shadow cracked
splitting into two
Her reflection stood lonely
on the pale wall
As he was dragged to prison
his hand turned into a handkerchief
waving goodbye
until her window stopped exhaling their song
Her femininity was exuding letters
untamed by language
She was his sails
his port
He used to tie a knot
hanging on for life
because she was at the end of that rope.
Every time they used to meet
his body welcomed her perfume
Her face was bearing the clemency of mint
while furnishing the street
with their dreams
hiding under the cloak of night
stealing from the cracks of the doors
the seeds of light
From the ashes of his concessions
he made her a wreath
worthy of the angel of jasmine
It was hard for him to leave
The flute was burning in his chest
the wind snatched from her pillow
messages of her oranges
He was forced to go
while she stood there
raining him with her panic
Leaving him her footsteps
and the trembling thoughts
attached to the soles of her feet.