for sufferers of Jerusalem Syndrome and victims of ethnic cleansing
at the gates of Kfar Shaul Mental Health Centre we stop and peer, but see only gates, the coils of
the fencing, not the far shawls within them
the 100 ghosts of Deir Yassin don’t hover, the new minds poured into old mindskins don’t flit,
there is no movement of human bodies, or of psychologists in theatrical costumes
the silence is enough for pismires to be heard, for pismires to think they are titans, thudding on
the base of a chopped-down tree trunk we use for a picnic table
the page is fallen, the paper is terrestrial, and we are here to sympathize with the mentally ill, to
offer up our hummus and Taybeh meal to the mad and dead
may they be free
from human shawls
to walk naked
in Jerusalem Forest
Poetry: Niall McDevitt
Photography: Max Reeves
(Jerusalem 2014)
http://www.haaretz.com/the-specters-of-kfar-shaul-1.262546
