this ancient land, and saw its
wonders—its temples, its statues and its high-pointed buildings
that prodded the sky.
All these I saw, but in the streets,
in the alleyways,
I saw more.
I saw the people’s past in their eyes, I saw the people’s present in the way they lived and breathed.
Beneath the tracks and footprints in the sand left by tourists who wondered across the picture post cards in the desert was another Egypt—
another India—
another world.
Behind the well-built walls—the
proof of pasts that shook the world—
was a hunger in the streets, a cramp
in the belly of the people.
Here and now were the legacies of
fallen empires;
Here and now its children left to die.
Now and then, the lens would cross
the plains of Africa, and now and then,
the blind would see the children cry.
But now and then did not relieve the famine, did not destroy the weapons,
did not condemn corruption,
did not propose the question: Why?