Cairo

I am coming to you, to your first stirrings in that dreaming sea

Did you hear it as I hear it?

This is an untrackable destination.

The muezzin calls, salutations rise as cars rumble in the wide belly of this night. We cross the Nile, cross ourselves, cross into gypsy heart opened, the tears of so many

whispered with longing for night to meet day, moon to meet sun in endless devotion, earth and sky making love for eternity.

Cruising Cairo by that star powered river; open top convertible, a black jewel speeding through the bracelet of streets. Downtown plunged into pharonic salutes, libations, talismanic truths. Anubis watching still.

The heat and the noise and the light. The heat and the noise and the light

We stumble out into the ongoing night and walk along streets of shadowed images, snakes and lovers entwine to the Nile.

I rise, demolished by drink and heat, demolished by love, everything passes like an hallucination. Lying in the darkness of the Cairo night I see my heart, my winged heart and feel the blood begin to descend and

let

it

go

I don't know, I do not know anything.

And now the totems come; crocodile deity at my knees, Sekhmet above.

Let them come, let them take me; here I am.

It's pouring down upon me; the realisations the abandonment the loss the love the fight the fire the beauty of your form

I want to touch you have your hands on me your lips to mine I want to start and never stop

This city, this madness of streetlife and cars

high rises

hawkers and call to prayer

big business and farmers in the mixdown

Oh Cairo you are some strange musical, some script of old, curling under the surface

There in your gypsy glamour and in cool girl heels, lipgloss perfect with perdita eyes

with your galleries and bars, your spoken prayers in fashion boutiques, your hijabs and tight pants, your men with eyes searching for a meeting, your desire for indulgence and dance with denial, your love, your closed doors, your chaos and sanctity

and here I am careering through your streets, changing my life, I felt I was changing my life

What's the time it takes for something

What's the time it takes to know

I thought I knew

I never knew angels had fear

I never knew any angels to ask

Did you?

And did you hear the jiins in Cairo jaywalking across the stars

as wide boys marked hearts for target practice

Did you ever do what you wanted?

So the tears fell like a rain of white flowers, flushed with the sound of

emptiness is the dreadest weight

another name

another beginning

and thousands of words and beliefs growing

We are into each other. We fly, we run, we float, we eat the fruit of each other, we taste the possibilities and walk in real and imagined gardens, our souls stroll through rose temple paradises

seduced before the next S P L I T

Linda Cleary