Gate A-4

“Gate A-4” has been published both as a short story and a prose poem. The prose poem version contains enjambment, which means that some sentences continue over the line break and on to the next line without a pause, giving the prose sentences a “poetic” quality. In “Gate A4,” other poetic qualities are observable in the speaker’s deliberate use of everyday diction and idiomatic speech. Striking visual imagery and evocative symbols are also present in the poem, offering the reader opportunities to imagine the airport scene for themselves and to feel the mood of the poem according to the reader’s own associations with the images and symbols at play.

The action of the poem is spare and immediate, contained within the setting of an airport terminal: A vulnerable woman misunderstands something important, then understands, thanks to the kindness of a stranger. The shifts in the mood of the poem, from ominous to optimistic, are more complex than the actual events of the poem, which suggests that the speaker believes that the internal, emotional lives of the individuals involved are more important than their external actions. The setting of the poem, an airport, enhances the tension of the early stanzas of the poem where the crisis of fear belongs to the Palestinian woman, not to the Americans bearing witness to her fear and confusion. The speaker of the poem reassures the Palestinian woman by speaking to her in Arabic, a language that, in this moment, offers comfort and safety.

The speaker shows astonishment at the shift in mood that takes place upon observing the Palestinian woman in distress, and a paradox exists in her reaction. Her surprise mirrors both the improbability and the likelihood of such an event in a contemporary scenario. For instance, the speaker hesitates to respond to the initial call for help because, “Well—one pauses these days” (Line 5). Here, the subtle use of the dash is loaded with the speaker’s awareness the post 9/11 world is full of security checks and racial profiling that lead to suspicion. The speaker hesitates momentarily to volunteer herself as someone who knows Arabic, inviting readers to ask difficult questions about language and identity: Would a German- or French-speaking person need to pause in a similar situation? The poem suggests the question, but it leaves the answer to the reader, once again reflecting the speaker’s light touch with provocative ideas about safety and stereotypes.

A sense of warmth grows as the speaker befriends the Palestinian woman, drawing the reader into an intimate, safe space. The airport terminal transforms from a place of isolation and suspicion into a chatty environment where personal interactions can take place. This transformation challenges the stereotypical image of travelers waiting in an airport for a delayed flight; many people associate such an image with boredom and discomfort, yet in this airport, a delay offers an opportunity for intercultural understanding and friendship.

Strikingly, the poem does not translate or italicize the Arabic words in the poem. The poet places the different languages of Arabic and English next to each other, neither emphasizing nor denying the individuality of the languages. Rather, the languages and their corresponding cultural identities coexist, comfortable in their nearness to one another. Later, this motif of proximity repeats when the speaker refers to “[t]he traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the/ lovely woman from Laredo” (Lines 29-30) who come together to share the cookies, and, more importantly, the broader world in which they all live.

The speaker of the poem also uses important cultural and personal markers to bring the Palestinian woman to life for the reader: the son settled in El Paso, the other sons who live elsewhere, her shared heritage with the speaker’s father, her generosity with the mamool cookies, and the presence of a potted plant in her travelling bag. Again, these details challenge the reader to resist a tendency to dismiss an unfamiliar-looking person as an inscrutable foreigner. With these details, the speaker gently affirms both the particular cultural and universally human aspects of the Palestinian woman.

Imagery also contributes to the poem’s poetic qualities. The striking details – such as the powdered sugar from the mamool cookies, the apple juice, and the two children racing around – infuse an aura of real life into the antiseptic airport setting. As the poem concludes, the small world built by the speaker and the Palestinian woman expands to include various women at the terminal gate, airline staff, and two little girls. The speaker notices the absence of fear and wishes to hug the other women at the gate in order to establish a universal sisterhood.

The poem’s final line, comprised of two sentences, states its uplifting message: “This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost” (Line 44). The sweetness of these simple sentences is juxtaposed with the factual blandness of the title of the poem, underlining the fact that the world still has room for hope even in the most banal of settings.