Cairo, Cairo, let the world be Cairo.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young in Cairo was heaven.

That friend who always has something
up his sleeve beyond what seems,
beyond the moment’s magic,
already puckers his canny brows,
and, tragically distant from the glory
in Tahrir Square, counsels caution:
“ok,” he says, “but where will all this lead”?

To him I say, “knowledgeable thou art,
and professional to the finger-tips that will
no doubt type back a cold-blooded column,
full of ifs and buts, and leaks from ‘reliable sources,’
and a construction of events
that will make the millions of secondary import,

I say to you what has happened in Cairo
puts to shame all our ifs and buts, our
cold-blooded columns, our reliably-sourced
wisdoms of conspiracies and stratagems;
in the political history of the world’s darkest
days, Tahrir Square was where
the Second Coming happened;

Jesus came as Gandhi, and smiling ever so
sweetly with the sad pity of judgement,
blessed the peaceful and peace-making
legions of hateless and patient sons and daughters
of the ancient Nile, rewarding
their undaunted faith, made breachless
by common labour and common resolve,
with what they deserved.

At Tahrir that happened which
not the smartest of us in studied proficiency
could ever stipulate or foresee.
Will we now have the sense and the spirit
to take it from here, and for mankind’s sake,
set our hearts, minds, and sinews together
a new earth and a new heaven to make?

Cairo, Tahrir was the site for epiphany;
we either have or do not have
the eyes to see.

*
Badri Raina
badri.raina@gmail.com