From Haifa to Near Faraway Cairo I recall the velvet sugar-cane juice we drank together with the smooth blue air under the open skies, the sunflower seeds we cracked together with jokes echoing laughter in the sun. How sweet the roasted sweet-potatoes were in those rainbow days of pretty sugar dolls. But unlike you dear Kadreya, Friend of my sunny schooldays, I was told I was just a visiting guest though born in the land of the Nile. Ordered by Egypt my Jewish wings to spread to search for a new nest, I have found it on Mount Carmel and here I mean to stay. My foremost wish today is our soldier sons to bathe in the peaceful rays their mothers wove when younger than they in the near faraway Rainbow days. Ada Aharoni Ada Aharoni is an Israeli poet, writer and professor. Ada was born in Cairo, lives in Haifa, and is President of IFLAC: PAVE PEACE, the International Forum for Literature and Culture of Peace. She writes in Hebrew and English, and her works have been translated into Arabic. Ada Aharoni sent a letter and the poem "From Haifa to Near Faraway Cairo to Egyptian President Sadat in 1977. This poem prompted Sadat to say, in his November 1977 address to the Israeli parlaiment (Knesset): "Let us make the poem a reality." | |