A man approached

Intruding on my space

Out of the blue moon

Asking Boy, where do you come from?

Oblivious to the beast

I exclaimed

Where do l know you from?

Persisting with the demand

I replied

From my mother’s thing

His face frowned angrily

I corrected myself

God created me l think

Actually I am from the land

Of milk and sunny

I am a sabrah-Handalah

The cactus with thorns

I am the other Semite though

The man perplexed

So you are not the chosen one

Yes l am

The indigenous one

Silence fell

He departed mumbling under his breath

What a crazy dude

I was ecstatic

I pondered

The last time we hosted a stranger

He took over the house.

FARID BITAR has published two poetry books:  “Footprints in the Mist” in 2010 and “Treasury of Arabic Love” in 1997.  Several of his poems are in the recent bilingual (Arabic and English) anthology of Palestinian Poets entitled  “A Blade of Grass” published in November, 2017.   Farid has also recorded two music CD’s in the studios in 2009 and 2011:  “Fatoosh” and “Shutat”