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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C. P. Cavafy
C. P. Cavafy
Constantine Cavafy was born Konstantínos Pétrou Kaváfis in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1863, the...
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FURTHER READING
Poems of Queer Experience
Abandonment Under the Walnut Tree
by D. A. Powell
Antique
by Arthur Rimbaud
Blue
by May Swenson
Calamus [In Paths Untrodden]
by Walt Whitman
elegy for kari edwards
by Julian T. Brolaski
Elegy in Joy [excerpt]
by Muriel Rukeyser
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder
by A. E. Housman
Langston Blue
by Jericho Brown
Lullaby
by W. H. Auden
Queer
by Frank Bidart
Starlight
by William Meredith
syntax
by Maureen N. McLane
The Embrace
by Mark Doty
The Hug
by Thom Gunn
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve
by Adrienne Rich
Untitled [You did say, need me less and I'll want you more]
by Marilyn Hacker
Related Pages
LGBTQ Poetry
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The Next Table

 
by C. P. Cavafy
translated by Avi Sharon

He can't be more than twenty-two.
And yet I'm certain it was at least that many years ago
that I enjoyed the very same body.

This isn't some erotic fantasy.
I've only just come into the casino
and there hasn't been time enough to drink.
I tell you, that's the very same body I once enjoyed.

And if I can't recall precisely where—that means nothing.

Now that he's sitting there at the next table,
I recognize each of his movements—and beneath his clothes
I see those beloved, naked limbs again.






From C. P. Cavafy: Selected Poems translated by Avi Sharon. Published by Penguin Classics. Copyright © 2008 by Avi Sharon. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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