Cairo Drifting

Last Friday we arrived in Cairo

and dashed off to Tahrir square

to sample the enormous energy of the joyful crowd, 
protesting and celebrating at the same time

later on from our Nile view room, the whole city seemed as excited

next day, 
we started drifting along the Nile

negotiating a big catch

crossing bunker underpasses

the bunkerish Hilton

and the burned Hilton





finding ourselves inevitably strolling through Tahrir

but a few wrong turns and we encounter the closed-off Mubarak headquarters

we observe the closed off mosques in the Islamic museum

prohibitive signs in languages we cant read





layers of fortifications



ancient dead-ends

we arrive at the spooky Citadel fortress, but nobody's there



we pass under elaborate structures that appear to hold the city up

we get lost in the back streets of somewhere

ending up the wild cotton market

the day changes but we are still in back street markets instead of museums

under elevated highways

and tree facades

botched Parthenons

finally a cat sleeping on a mountain of Cotton

followed by Mountains of Investment

that always end up as Mountains of Rubble

pyramids of loss

Gothic Minarets

that seem to become integrated into buildings

embedded green mirror minarets

and everything looks like something to preach from

though the message is ambiguous 

we enter a mosque during prayer

but escape up to the minaret again

observing the city from up high

scanning the horizon for pyramids

even the roofs of buildings 

are a desert of ruins