Neither does her brother
Abdullah or her cousins ’cuz
the Gaza Surf Club doesn’t get
out in the Mediterranean Sea
anymore. Hamas don’t like
girls participating in sports.
And the IDF don’t like Gazans
who might participate in Hamas.
Or get in the way, so the Club
is living in tents on the beach
beside the sea they dare not enter.
Lieutenant Kilgore’s famous line
in the movie, Apocalypse Now,
“Charlie don’t surf” was inspired
by Ariel Sharon’s comment after
winning the battle for Aqaba in
the Six-Day War. He took some
of his soldiers spearfishing and
boasted after roasting a few,
“We’re eating their fish”
When Abdullah was ten his first
surfboard was a refrigerator door.
Seventeen years later, the boxes
those appliances come in might
serve as a bedroom under a tent
a shelter from the swelter and
insects that plague your huddled
masses gathered on the shore
of that wine-dark sea of yore.
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