• A clump of leaves lay by the road-side;
  • crisp, hiddled and seemingly sedate;
  • a soft patch-work quilt of golden rags.
  • And as I walked on, a cold north wind,
  • fierce and biting in the gutter,
  • scattered the leaves in all directions
  • And I saw demonstrators running
  • in Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus,
  • the occupying wind chasing them.
  • And I stood there with these thoughts swirling
  • as the sudden gust ran out of puff
  • and the casualties lay strewn around.
  • And I stood there and waited, looking
  • at the abandoned leaves lying there;
  • a street in Leith now in the West Bank.
  • And it is only now I can say
  • I am pleased I did, for I witnessed
  • a second wind that blew them all back.