SINCE THE REVOLUTION

i.
 Since the revolution 
 flowers have expanded.
 Goats have invaded and continue to advance. The wild birds sing to the tamed trees:
 How long will these roofs oppress you?

ii.
 Five minutes from Tahrir Square we sit in a bar to watch Tahrir Square on a wide-screen television. That is just down the road, you say. Like democracy. 
 We sit in a bar and wait for democracy to come and join us.
 Each time the door opens we hear crowds screaming. 
 It just turned violent, someone says.
 We order another beer, you smoke another cigarette. We will have to wait to go home.

iii.
 Good Morning Al Saqqara! Good Morning! 
 Loud, joyful, he throws the words.
 One man dancing across the street, before he sees the newspaper,
 his bed fresh, empty, the sun not yet angry.

iv.


One woman forgets in the morning, even after the violence, everything but
 love, stretching over the Nile, into her eyes. 
 Merhaba she whispers, so the whole country hears.

v.


Goodness is still growing here and 
 can be bought in contraband stores.

vi.
 Sometimes Cairo feels dangerous like the sun has come out with a knife. Less people are out. It is quiet. 
 The sun cuts.

vii.
 The imams are angry. They shout angry prayers for justice to a God 
 who gave them only noise and silence. Someone
 throws a Molotov cocktail heavenward.

viii.

On the market stalls at Nasser Station
 a man with a small brush
 shakes the dust from rows of unsold sunglasses
 back onto the street.

ix.


It will repeat itself. It will 
 repeat again. Here and elsewhere, until they 
 release us, we will be creating the 
 shape of justice with human bodies.

x.


When the demons in you grow stronger,

so too the light becomes stronger. 


xi.

The rusty cockerel competes with the husky iman to be the first to shake us from our sleep.

Images courtesy of Catriona Knapman.

StartFragmentCatriona Knapman is a Scottish writer and human rights worker. Originally from Glasgow she has lived in nine countries in four continents over the past ten years. Her poems have been published widely in journals in the UK and internationally. She brought her first solo poetry show ‘Out On The World’ to the Edinburgh 2016 Fringe, where she was runner up in the Stanza Best Poem of the Fringe Award.EndFragment

https://www.facebook.com/catrionaknapmanwriting/

accessible written and visual outputs.EndFragment