Cairo Street Scenes - Rotana

I’m still praying, yes

But I’ve been praying less

I’ve been reading more

I’ve been meeting more people with ideas

A mural lays bare

What a song can make you feel

What a high def image shared can make real

And you have to deal with it

And you have to deal

I believe in God

I still believe

But when you see

You can’t unsee

I saw the beauty in a cup of coffee

In a water pipe

The beauty in ripped jeans

Dirty sandals

Brown hair in the sunlight

The beauty in the buildings

Gathered by a river

To the sea

Against the open sky

But beauty isn’t kind

It hides the truth of what’s behind it

There’s a vendor asking «will they take my stall?»

Before the midday call

It’s not about the angle that makes her golden bangles shine

It’s the wrist she adorns that’s sore

From kneading the dough and whacking the wheat into dust

It’s the line outside the bakery door

It’s her neck the beads of sweat on her forehead

Bags laid out like corpses filled with wheat and sand

Loaves in her hand

A daughter hanging on her tattered shawl

Before the midday call

I hear the quiet in a shadow down a street

I hear the secrets on the street too narrow for the police

And children of seven or eight look older than me

Bodies missing parts

They sleep in peace on mats in the dust

While the students plan

We plan what we must

We paint another future on the wall

And tomorrow we could lose it all

Before the midday call

My religion is these images

My religion is when the shutter closes on hanging clothes in alleyways

My religion is the composition of it all

My vision is my call

My vision is my call

My vision is my call

Before the midday

Before the midday

Before the midday