The Road Back to Haifa

Haifa was once called Tell Abu Hawam.
Settlements tend to undergo name changes.
New York was once called New Amsterdam.
Likewise, people live through different stages.

Sammy, a taxi driver, had been a failed medical student.
No passion for anatomy, made obvious
the first time he had to carve a cadaver.
Let the ill, therefore, heal the sick.

Sammy's childhood ambition was to be an astronaut.
If you look at your city as a strange planet,
driving a cab comes close to being a space traveler.
Every country is basically an alien nation.

On his 26th birthday, Sammy is contracted by a tourist
to drive her to the Dead Sea and back.
Tour bus are cheaper, but the lady wants a cab.
Be hospitable to strangers. Tourists, after all, are guests.

During the trip, the tourist asks many questions,
questions of a personal nature, like is Sammy a Jew or Arab?
Does he have relatives who are Holocaust survivors?
What does he think of Barack Obama?

Sammy begins to feel suspicious,
a nagging feeling like that of deja vu,
as if he has already lived this situation,
an entangled plot to kill him.

Midway to the Dead Sea, Sammy gets a call,
and fakes it into a conversation, which recommends
his immediate return to Haifa. This he explains to the tourist.
He'll arrange for another cab.

The next day, Sammy reads, that the other driver was murdered.
Was the murderer the androgynous, bespectacled tourist?
On the road back to Haifa, Sammy listened to Dark Side of The Moon.
The dark side of Earth is the evil which lurks in the hearts of men...and women

Sammy should review the Pink Floyd album more closely.
There could be a message for him in the lyrics.
A year later, the tourist is back. Like the first time,
she wears black leather. Like the first time she finds Sammy by a cab stand.

This time, she's wanting tutoring
in Hebrew and/or Arabic.
Here we go again., seconds on deja vu.
What is this she up to?