Only NEAR you Jerusalem

By Hania Aswad

Over the hills
and so so NEAR,

there stands
the city of my birth ...
Jerusalem.

Travelling often, 
I cross into countries, regions and continents. 
Yet traveling into Palestine, 
I can only pass 
NEAR the boarders 
of you Jerusalem.

So NEAR;

NEAR enough to
breath your air,

and see your land ...  

but with so much pain 

and sorrow within.

Few meters away from my grasp ..

but impossible to be reached.

And with every trip

the pain is increased.

The pain of belonging  

to a confiscated

childhood memory & home,

a stolen natural present,

and of a forbidden

connection to roots.

Jerusalem, 
where my lungs took their first ever breath;

my eyes first time ever seen the light;

and my being in this world had ever become.

My city ... 
the city where my grandparents are buried
and where their grandparents are buried too
had been taken over by other children
whose parents and grandparents
had come from other countries
to take the place of me, 
my parents, grandparents 
and stay.