Dedicated to Mohammed Al Jaja.

The weather is a bit hot and calm,
typical for Gaza on a summer afternoon.
I open my email and find:
My Schengen visa is granted!
My body is out of control:
My mouth keeps smiling
my heart beats fast.
It’s as if already I can taste
the flavor of freedom!
I ask myself, could this be REAL?
This dream will actually come true?
So many have said yes.
miracles can happen.
But I was afraid to believe.
I still am afraid to believe.
Getting out of Gaza lies ahead,
the borders that make our home a prison.

Then a ‘stranger,’
someone I just met,
knowing nothing other than my name,
says I will sort everything out.  
A magic phrase.
I can breathe.
That flavor is on my tongue.
To that pure heart,
helping for nothing in return,
I can only say, thank you.
At last I feel alive.