I Want (I Don't Want)

I don’t want our kids to meet at encounter groups, to learn to empathise with the “other”

I don’t want them to hear of the Holocaust, to learn how our homelands became our graves

I don’t want them to talk about the Nakba, the right of return, and how long it takes

I don’t want to fear that in my nascent country, we risk annihilation again

I don’t want to fear that in my exile, we risk losing the chance for a homeland

I want our kids to play together and never conceive that they are the “other”

I want to meet over coffee, as your friend

I want the Nakba to be forgotten, and “never again” to be so obvious we never have to say it again

I want the memory of war to be banished from our hearts forever

Carole St. Laurent

This poem is an imaginery conversation between two mothers in Israel and Palestine, wishing they could meet over coffee and watch their children grow up together, in innocence of war and separation.