Cairo
My heart fills with echoes, a singing chamber.
My head is the sun. You are the island
of towers and the living air.
There is no break, no edge. I am sky
as I breathe, road when I run.
Ever ending, ever starting. Stars in the river
lost and found and found again.
A soul is always lost to darkness,
call it sacrifice or theft. O City
that stalks and devours, I have seen my fate
and grasped its hand. I have sat
by the deathly river and tasted night.
I have touched the face
and kissed the lips behind the mask.
Clarissa Aykroyd grew up in Victoria, Canada and now lives in London. Her poems have appeared in publications including The Missing Slate, And Other Poems and Shot Glass Journal and she has been nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize. She is the author of a blog on poetry in all its forms, The Stone and the Star. Find her on Twitter: @stoneandthestar