Best Cairo Poems

A lifetime of waiting, stacks of National
Geographic half as tall as me, piled on
every step. A girl with nothing to do but dream.

The yellow-black jackets buzzed, I flowered
as I turned the pages. The relics of Tutankhamun
fascinated: gold, turquoise, lapis and the slaves
in mud-brick houses they...

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Await the zenith of the sun,
cross clay courtyard a beckoning
barefoot walked, heartstring undone,
Oh Lord, there’s love, no reckoning.

Soundless clarion of tears fall
toward absolution’s bright blessing,
within the domed sabil I call...
Oh Lord, there’s love, no reckoning.

The fountain's dry, but not my eyes
sounds of grace rebound, amazing,
Amazing...

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There was a young writer from Cairo,
   So proud of his free flowing biro,
       But he lost it in the sand 
   When a camel knocked his hand,
   No longer his writing can...

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Limerick: Once a Belly-Dancer in Cairo

Once a Belly-Dancer in Cairo
Tried to wiggle her way through Fado
Only thing she had on
Was a navel button:
(Now) Fado mambo-jambo Oporto.

© T. Wignesan – Paris,  2013


Limerick: Once a Belly-Dancer in Cairo

Once a Belly-Dancer in Cairo
Tried to wiggle her way...

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A block off the river
Just a step from the gutter
A bar that hadn't barred me, yet
I walked in for the first time
And knew I'd come home
A Lucy moment, lucid
In Cairo, Illinois
River town of bars and churches
One on every block
Like a chess match from hell
A queen...

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Lightning flashes across
The Egyptian night sky and
Standing on my terrace I can see
Those ancient pyramids
Towering over the city miles
Wide, so high they appear
To touch the stars and you
Feel as though they are gazing
Down upon you with an all
Seeing Eye...
Well and I can feel the cool
Desert...

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Standing in Cairo market
streets bustling
horns honking
children’s
laughter
ball throwing
heat simmering
the melting pot.
Caught
in between
ancient and modern
sellers market
wares and bargain
prices over jewels and silks
fruits and vegetables.
Something about Cairo
City Triumphant.

Sipping espresso at a near
by cafe in the 
center of the bazaar.
Camels traded and sold
tips given by the owners.
Fine linens and...

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Shall we meet in Cairo, 
‘neath the ancient, mystified monuments
 to forgotten love?
Halves rent apart worlds ago, 
reintroducing first wild desire.

To explore scents exotic,
a tangible feast upon my tender breast,
tasting honeyed hips
with sugar-spoken lips 
‘neath paled moonlight. 
Trace silver tongued lines
across your dark, rippled chest...

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the solid structures
opens a sort of bliss
beneath cairo's lessons
the hardship of catered 
gestures above a silver spoon
soiled linen long naps depicts
the empty soundless notions
a gentle force of completion
while the withered kindred
spirits soar across the sea
seeking wasted bread crumbs
and folded sheets 
of racing thoughts captured
within a...

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shrouded eyes glaring
menacing pushcarts skirting
pyramids hover...

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my third eye whisked my soul to Cairo
I had an eagle’s view of the pyramids
tasted grittiness of the sand on my tongue
camel sat and pondered my arrival

old Egypt is mystical and ethereal
sand birds accepted me as one of their own
we flew together over pharaoh’s tombs
I...

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Close to a scandalous ten thousand,
A reproach to the late Reverend Townsend;
All with their advertising megaphones,
And big dreams-nursing microphones …

In my town of domicile
With odds one can’t reconcile
Which I had some time walked miles
With my job-hunting files
That rather handed me victorious counts
Of how their number...

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