Talking to a Photograph. (2)

Talking to a Photograph. (2)

The corner of this grimy street
is dusty and unswept…and yet..
The eye is drawn in.
It’s picturesque.

It has an energy that speaks
of old Humanity,
Where both decay and life…
Sit in Eternity.

The crumbling wall once
Built with craft…
Is now adorned with notices…
Shabby, torn and out of date.

A man stares out….intense and lean
Polished sandals …crisp white shirt.
Jazzy jacket and a watch….
His expression… quizzical.

His throne…a box
and plastic sack.
Nearby, a scripted ‘wizard’s hat’ …
With a fancy mirror over that.

The turbaned man leans on a crutch,
He looks towards ubiquity ?
Or…are his eyes unseeing,
and darkly amaurotic?

This is a line of Bagatelle.
Black metal stands, and bric-a-brac,
With standing grassy seed pods .…
Stacked in plastic crates.

The broken path leads on
and out of sight.
Two Cairo men …both stilled in time.
Captured in black and white.

Kristine Byrne 22nd Nov. 2020
Le Cairo 2002
(The camera’s hidden in Arnaud Du Boistesselin’s hand. The subjects did not know he’s capturing them.)