51. dreams
Hafiz told me
he’d always dreamt
of giving up driving his bus
round Kentish Town
one day
and returning to Egypt
to run a little gift shop
in an old bazaar.
he wanted to watch
the sun go down,
with a coffee & a cheroot
in a cafe by the Nile.
I met him,
in Cairo
one day,
shutting up shop
& he turned to me & smiled,
unsurprised,
and said
“come, my friend,
let’s get a coffee”.