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The Edinburgh Surprise

from The Edinburgh Surprise by Avital Raz

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The Edinburgh Surprise
by Avital Raz

Jilted, and rather wilted,
too drunk to read a map,
I was walking down one Edinburgh street
when a young man just fell in my lap.
And though conversation was not necessary,
we tried to have one still.
He asked me ‘Where did you grow up?’
and I told him ‘Israel’.

He said he lived in Morocco
till the age of six.
His father was a Jew,
he said he was a Jewish-Muslim mix.
I pretended to be interested,
though I was too drunk to speak;
he asked about my childhood
and I told him it was bleak.

He said ‘Come have some wine with me,
I live just five minutes from here’ –
and though he was a strange man in a strange city,
I didn’t feel any fear.
We were walking through those foreign streets,
I was laughing and tripping everywhere.
I asked myself, ‘is this a good idea?’
but I was too drunk to care.

We walked up the stairs, came into his apartment,
he said ‘sorry for the mess’.
He poured me a glass of dry white wine;
‘I never did this so fast’, I confessed.
He kissed me, and he grabbed my breast
and it made me kind of nervous.
I said ‘let’s talk just a few minutes more’,
so he asked about my army service.

I said ‘I didn’t go to the army,
no, I showed them I was insane.’
‘Now show me’, he said,
and he grabbed my breast again,
and then he led me to the bed
and in a second I was naked,
and though I wished he were another man,
I didn’t need to fake it.

He entered me quite quickly
and I enjoyed the occupation;
it took me by surprise, however
that anal penetration.

He said ‘You don’t know where I’m from,
you still think I’m from Paris, France.’
He fucked me hard and made me bleed,
I was in a drunken trance.

And then he stopped, and took a shower,
and he came back with more wine,
and he kissed me and said ‘baby,
no, I’m from Palestine.’

So I’ve been fucked in the ass for peace,
I’ve been fucked in the ass for peace,
I’ve been fucked in the ass for peace in the Middle East,
and frankly, it’s the least I could do.

I said ‘baby, you didn’t need to lie to me,
’cos I’m a stranger wherever I might be,
and the dates he gave me to eat they were so sweet’ –
he said ‘maybe one day we’ll all be free.’
“Do you think so…?”

Now my politics have always been more than liberal,
but I’m not one who goes to demonstrations.
But now I feel I kind of did my part
for Israeli-Palestinian relations.
As he walked me home we were silent,
we were walking hand in hand,
and I know we both felt a sweet sadness
thinking about our common land.

credits

from The Edinburgh Surprise, released November 18, 2013

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Avital Raz UK

Avital Raz is a vocal artist who travels across many genres.
Her songs may resemble old English lute songs, Indian Classical Ragas, Cabaret, Blues or Eastern-European Jewish melodies. A multi-cultured get-together of many strange characters, all rolled up into one quirky singer- songwriter. ... more

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