In One World

In 1948 I fled my village;
The Stern Gang drove my family from the lands
We ran into the desert
Where I've spent these decades living by my hands
Life in Haifa wasn't easy,
But so much better than this hellhole with the soldiers and barbed wire
And the closures and the hunger,
The humiliation and the checkpoints, the machine gun fire
And each day I wonder, after Haifa,
The home that we abandoned when the Zionists had won
Is there a family with a child?
Does its father love it as I loved my only son
Before the soldiers shot him down,
Riddled him with bullets in his back and in his head?
Home in Haifa, in my house,
Does his father know the pain there is in an empty bed?

In 1960 I fled my country,
Left the Tigris River for this foreign place
I had to leave home, I didn't want to,
But they were rounding up the leftists and the papers had my face
And my son, a student leader,
On the streets of Baghdad was nowhere to be found
So I walked through the mountains, just the shirt upon my back,
Knowing not where I was bound
Now here I am, this town of Haifa in this little house,
But at least I'm still alive
And each day I wonder how is Baghdad,
Would I recognize my friends if any did indeed survive?
It took a long time, but I made a life here
And I wish my son could be here in this town upon the shore
I was with my wife, it was the Sabbath,
When an old Arab couple knocked upon our door

We asked them in, gave them tea
'Cause that's what you do with strangers, and we could see they meant no harm
We told our story, they told theirs:
Us of our life in Baghdad, them of their family farm
And of this house, which they once lived in
Where once they raised a family, long before their hair turned gray
And of their son, and the troopers
And of ours, whom we still cry for every day
So much in common, so much gone bad
So much running and never coming home
You can hear the cards falling down,
See the faces of the children, forever forced to roam
And here we were, in this house,
Fearing that tomorrow would be just like yesterday
So much resentment, so much at stake
And I really don't remember who was the first to say

In one world,
In one village,
In one home,
Let us live together

In one world,
In one village,
In one home,
Let us live together

In one world,
In one village,
In one home,
Let us live together

In one world