City of Mars *

This City, whose borders impart more distance than balance,
more history than last year's bomb, hoards what's left
in a clogged nasal, mere sand. And if left to their own devices
our camels would wander the delta in strips,
mince the fleshy bits of yesterday between cuspid and hump.

Today's footprint moves in thunderous claps,
wedges its toe in the soft divide, imparts a desert
onto the substrate of artifact, then layers its lotus
where a Caliph might've seeded. Our objective, articulate
in its silence, falls prey to history. Ahead, the flashy bauble
in rearview, behind, the golden fleece turned rug.

Cairo, the red land of earth's footstool,
where a Sphinx reflects its skeleton over a crumbling
acropolis, and a buried queen dampens the kohl of mascara
then lines her rigid countenance to sing, "Dig into the physics
of your omission, with each thrust draw up half the body,
half its shadow, let the glitter of stars and dust
fill your eyes, let the end of all mirth define you...La."

David Hunter Sutherland

* Note: Adorning many a tomb or sculpture in Egypt are symbolic creatures and animals which, like those found in the Lascaux caves in the Dordogne River valley of southwest France, demonstrate how art has played a significant role in human life and aesthetic understanding.

Last year during a trip to Egypt I was informed by our group's guide that an Egyptian King or Caliph asked his engineers to construct a pendulum-like device to map the stars. In doing so, he also told them that the first celestial body its compass pointed to would be the name of the province. This planet was Mars. Cairo's original name, translated, was "City of Mars".