On the beach your pain receded
As you drew near the sea and the crowds.
A hustler of thirty, searching,
You just lost your mojo.
On the beach you stood before Allah.
This thing you crave – respectability –
Yonder child has, surely,
But never hustlers and thieves.
On the beach you shouted “why me?”
You killed your mother the day you were born –
The first, fair, beloved wife –
She would have sent you to school.
On the beach your stomach growled.
You ignored the tourist, worth instant hundred pounds
For a fellow countryman
Who gave hundred piasters.
On the beach your pride returned
True Son of Upper Egypt. You survived
From homeless, illiterate child,
Via Cairo’s streets, to four languages.
On the beach you watched the sunset,
While pondering “respectability.”
What is Step One? Step Two?
Proper trading. Then a good wife.
On the beach you lay in slumber.
It was worth it pawning your friend’s phone
For a bus ticket
To Al-Iskandariya.
As you drew near the sea and the crowds.
A hustler of thirty, searching,
You just lost your mojo.
On the beach you stood before Allah.
This thing you crave – respectability –
Yonder child has, surely,
But never hustlers and thieves.
On the beach you shouted “why me?”
You killed your mother the day you were born –
The first, fair, beloved wife –
She would have sent you to school.
On the beach your stomach growled.
You ignored the tourist, worth instant hundred pounds
For a fellow countryman
Who gave hundred piasters.
On the beach your pride returned
True Son of Upper Egypt. You survived
From homeless, illiterate child,
Via Cairo’s streets, to four languages.
On the beach you watched the sunset,
While pondering “respectability.”
What is Step One? Step Two?
Proper trading. Then a good wife.
On the beach you lay in slumber.
It was worth it pawning your friend’s phone
For a bus ticket
To Al-Iskandariya.
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