Shoko beSakit

She’s going to Jerusalem she says,
next month, end of June.
“Bring me a shoko besakit” I say,
knowing she’ll never get it through.
Inevitably, the bag would explode,
_______dousing
underwear and t-shirts in chocolate milk.
Plus, a Palestinian, she’d
never get it through customs,
a matter of grave national security! So
she suggests instead, she’ll enjoy one for me
there, snipping off the corner of the
baggie with her teeth, sipping
cold chocolate milk in the
Yerushalmi sun⎯
maybe in Independence Park. Finally, I say,
“Don’t forget the lachmaniyah.”

______________shoko besakit – chocolate milk sold in a sealed plastic bag
______________Yerushalmi – pertaining to Jerusalem
______________lachmaniyah – a roll, often eaten with shoko basakit