Israelis and Palestinians

Last week 400 Israelis and Palestinans

met in Paris to talk about how

to hold onto hope. What we

can do together. In 1989 some of us

worked on a similar conference

The Road to Peace with 20 members

of the Israeli government

20 members of the PLO

an invited audience of 500 people

at Columbia University. The world

was different then. A wonderful

Orthodox Yemenite poet named

Bracha Serri stayed on our living room couch.

We all loved her.

Noah was three years old.

A small bird in a green cage

lived in the living room with Bracha.

She was tiny and well-endowed.

At night she washed out her ample bras

in the bathroom sink, stood on a chair,

then hung them to dry on the cage.

In the morning, we went into the living room

and saw the bird, the bras, and the cage.

Noah’s first big belly laugh.

Israeli Palestinian Chorus