“Remember, whatever you do in life, for them you will always, but always, be an Arab. Do you understand?”

“May you get a piece of straw in your eye and a splinter in your ear and not know which one to pull out first.”

“He despised the British more every day. He couldn’t stand their haughty presence as they walked through the market in groups in their pressed uniforms, as if they were the lords of the land.”

“The sound of the killed pieces / tossed into the wooden box is like distant thunder, heralding evil.”

“Little kids in costume giggle happily / real flower children / and Margalit Tzan’ani sings / ‘The Honey in the Groove'”

“At home I have a blue piano, / I, who cannot play a note. / It stands in the gloom of the cellar door, / now that the whole world has grown coarse…”

“When she raised her eyes, she turned red. Two eyes were watching her. They were Heathcliff’s eyes. Green, slightly slanting and focused on her…”

“It was hot and sticky out. The sun had come up too fast. It took us half an hour to complete the first half-circle…”

“Our mother didn’t step, she skimmed. At great speed, in a total silence that split the balanced quiet of the street in two.”

“Yemenites from the transit camp came to my grandfather’s house / sat and kept silent / while one sang the other waited…”