Why Did She Come?

A woman and a child, pale because the photo was not cleared of the fixer. The woman does not smile (even though she did not know she would die exactly forty-seven days later). The girl does not smile (even though she did not know what death was). The woman has the girl’s lips and her brow (the girl has the nose of the man who will remain forever outside the frame). The woman’s hand is on the child’s shoulder, the child’s hand is in a fist (not out of anger but to hold half a toffee). The woman’s watch does not work, it has a wide strap (out of fashion in 1974), and the girl’s dress is not of Egyptian cotton (Nasser, who manufactured everything from the needle to the rocket, died years ago). The shoes are imported from Gaza (and as you know Gaza is no longer at all a free zone).