My awesome wife just wrote up a fantastic poem dedicated to the #Jan25 Tahrir protestors. This past week has been riveting and emotional for us, even though we live far from Egypt now. Cairo was our home for two years—we drank from the Nile (شربنا من النيل) and feel part of it. This horrific carnage is absolutely sickening.
Ta7ya Masr!
In Tahrir Square
In Tahrir Square the people fight
For freedom, truth, and human rights
We all should have; While here I sit
And watch the robins peck and flit
Not knowing what went on last night.
How many dead? We’ll never know.
The guns, the knives, the bombs aglow
Seek and will seek to thwart hearts knit
In Tahrir square.
Take up their quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands they fling
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with those who die
They shall not sleep, when silence rings
In Tahrir Square.
Nancy Heiss
February 3, 2011
(With thanks to John McCrae)