“Remember That Night in Cairo” by Jeremy Dae Paden

Tired of pizza, we discussed
outside the restaurant
whether to try something new,
local and unfamiliar,

how finally we went three doors
down to try the ful medames
and aysh baladi, how the bomb
exploded as they served us tea.

They say that aysh, the word
for bread, means life.

We sat there and tore life
and dipped it in stewed beans
and ate it, while three doors down,
ambulances, weeping, corpses.

–Jeremy Dae Paden,
Broken Tulips
Accents Publishing

More from Broken Tulips and Jeremy Paden:

Jeremy Dae Paden was born in Italy and raised in Central America and the Caribbean. He received his Ph.D. in Latin American literature from Emory. His poems have appeared in such places as the Atlanta Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cortland Review, Louisville Review, Naugatuck River Review, pluck! and Rattle, among other journals and anthologies. This is his first published collection of poems. He is an associate professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and a member of the Affrilachian Poets.

14 thoughts on ““Remember That Night in Cairo” by Jeremy Dae Paden”

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“Remember That Night in Cairo” by Jeremy Dae Paden

14 thoughts on ““Remember That Night in Cairo” by Jeremy Dae Paden”

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