SUSAN EISENBERG
When they question you at the airport
don’t mention Tayibe, just say Tel Aviv.
They’ll ask what you’re bringing home.
Call everything trinkets. Say you bought them
in Jerusalem. Say, the Old City, the market.
Or say they were gifts, everything was a gift—
but then, they could ask who gave them. Best
to say you bought everything in the market.
You can say you went to Nazareth.
Just don’t say Nablus.
Or Ramallah, don’t say you were in Ramallah.
Not anywhere on the West Bank.
Give our address in Tel Aviv. Say mostly
you stayed here. But—my niece wrote a book
they don’t like, so—don’t mention our last name.
Just the address. Most of all,
don’t lie. And don’t mention Tayibe.