Carlos Pintado's "A Street in Alexandria"

I went looking to see if there was a translation of this poem online so I could link it, but there isn't, so hopefully this still counts as fair use.  It is from the collection "Nine Coins/Nueve monedas":

A Street in Alexandria

How could I miss, in this moment,

a youth walking beside me in Alexandria,

how he sees his shoulder knock against

my shoulder like ships driven by the tide,

and how that moment, barely noticed,

is eternal, beyond time as it passes

through golden desert sands.

How could I miss, just now,

that we could have been the ones, ages ago, 

who went to Constantine Cavafy's house

--lewd, lit with desire--

while the poet was out,

and remained there sadly, looking at the objects,

leafing through a book until we found

that poem, the one that speaks of two young men

walking in Alexandria, shoulders grazing,

glancing, just slightly, recognizing each other,

like ships driven by the tide.

(Translated by Hilary Vaughn Dobel.)  I did try to just choose part of the poem, but all the lines are too interconnected, and the poem too short, and the feeling was brought about by the whole, not just a line, so my attempts at a selection of the poem failed miserably, and it did the poet and the translator no favors, so I just transcribed all of it.

What I liked about the poem was the sense of continuity between poems, poets, places, and readers.  As a reader, I do enjoy books that take place in places I have visited or lived, and I also enjoy visiting places I have read about, so this poem, taking the circumstances and relating it to past events told by earlier writers, with of course the implication that it has been going on since time immemorial, and it will repeat itself as well, even if no one recalls these poems describing the event.

I hope that is not a hopelessly vague description of how and why I like the poem, but poetry was never my strong suit, though I do like it, and I do enjoy trying to share what I like (to all three of my readers).