Born at a Checkpoint in Bethlehem in Palestine

Genevieve Cora Fraser

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
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