Feb 8, 2010

A Sight

A piece of my soul in a sigh
is only air coming from inside
carrying a part of me,
or bringing, just the vacuum's storm
to the dismal shelter of my heart.


21th March 2005

Feb 5, 2010

The Window

Last night I did nothing special ... in bed with a bowl of strawberry gelatin, translating, thinking of you while a whirlwind of ideas raced through my head... Browse a webpage in which I had register few hours before (again, the same mistake). Bit by bit I abandoned myself to the dream that I didn't see coming... A light sleep that lasted just over half an hour. When I opened my eyes everything was the same.
I turned off the laptop and placed it on the table. I turned off the light.
The window was still closed.

I fell asleep before I could start thinking again. It was 3am... it was raining outside, melodic chime which merged with the voices of the dream that started sometime in the night. I've learned my lesson: "not to think about complicated issues before going to sleep"...

Eyes that looked at me with pity. Same eyes that looked at me with pride before.
A family around a dark table, eating.
An iron gate which you passed without looking back.
A confirmation. Indifference. Pain.

When I woke, the window was open. It wasn't me.

Feb 3, 2010

Once upon a time, a girl on Niqab...

Tonight I took noodles for dinner, like the ones I use to eat in my cozy apartment in Dokki, near the main street, tucked into my room with the AC always working. I think that was the last time I ate them... one year and a half without noodles, it's a record for me. And from this point, I created a thoughts chain that led me from the noodles until something curious that happened on my last visit to Cairo.
That day I had met a good friend I couldn't see often in my previous trips because of his absences from Cairo for military service. It's funny but wherever we go and whatever we do, at one point we need to pass by Tahrir Square, I think it is a tradition we are unaware but we always strive to meet.
The fact is that I I had to leave soon, take a yellow cab and go to the Victory City (Nasr City, an area full of shops some away from old town), so we were enjoying the last time together, talking and taking pictures: they had been "watering" the grass and some puddles quite large had been formed, some of which looked like small lakes in the middle of the Square. As we pulled away from the pool, laughing, a girl covered with black niqab stopped us because she wanted to meet me, wanted to be my friend (?). Exactly, that was the face I weared, no one suddenly decides he/she wants to be your friend without knowing nothing at all about you. I must say I was flattered when she explained she had been watching me from few minutes ago, she liked me and thought I was very beautiful. I think I blushed at that point. So after a ten-minute talk standing on the sidewalk as three "puppets", we went to take a mango juice, while my new friend took me by the hand, led me among the crowded streets around the square and invite me to mango juice... such a delicious mango juice!
In the end, she gave me her phone number and I gave her mine and promised to call her the next time I come back to Cairo, a promise I pretend to keep.
The myth of "anti-Westernism" that sometimes surrounds the girls who wear niqab is broken with stories like this. While everyone is free to use their freedom in the way they consider appropiated (and no one has the right to push them away or prevent them about it), I must say that the humanity of this person who took the trouble to go beyond the cliches to know me because she simply "liked me", well deserved this post. If you ever read me... Thanks for your kindness... next time it's my turn to invite you for juice!

Jan 29, 2010

Oh, Sherlock...

I'm happy, I lye smiling in bed just minutes before turning off the light to sleep (probably with a smile). Somehow I fail to understand I have made use of a skill, that I developed in my childhood, thought I have never given it the importance it deserved. I was able to bind trivial facts that I got in a total unintentional way and managed to draw a conclusion that I think is fairly accurate. The happiness comes precisely from there. Facts for several days until few days ago, bound to give me information that would not have reached any other way. Info that made me happy.

Oh, Sherlock ...

Jan 25, 2010

Stars


As a child I was convinced that sea stars were just stars which falls from the sky into the ocean and in its rapid decline became shooting stars. I remember that sometimes, looking out the window to sleep, expected to see a star falling in the square outside the building, in the yard or at my window. I had a theory that maybe they fall when they die and when immersed in water, lost the light that made them shine.
Last night, before falling asleep, drew back the curtain and let the light in.