35.

A Preponderance of Starry Beings

Oh starry ones! I am a man by a river, gazing up. And how these same stars quiver above Kheraba and An. How these lights reach farther than the watch fires of Heliopolis. And what of hidden things? Oh hawk! oh restless son, sojourner into this season. The snake writhes in your talons. Your wings brush the edge of the sky. Long flight of days passing many lands, death sleeping among many feathers.

Oh soul, ancient ram come here by this pool to drink. Two horns like sense and reason implanted in your forehead. Son of the mountain's sky. Dusty hoof which tramps an old trail. Oh king! This rock on which we live endures. Yours is the white crown and the blue tower of flesh infused with spirit. Above the eye of god dreams us; below we are. Air and earth and mist and fire.

To the east the mountains are singing. Oh lord of acacia trees! whose blossoms are the first sensations, who binds the rags of mummies. This sad mortality! The boat is set upon its sledge and filled with yellow flowers.

Oh jackal Anubis! Show me the road through darkness. I have passed through this door into nothing. Nothing grows and nothing dies; all that was and would be is. This life is a singular breath and your passive eye is time. Oh justice done, truth is law! Upon the brow of men the world is written and in their hearts the word is deed. Smoke from temple fires curl like hair. The ankh in your one hand, the knife in the other.

Oh he whose face is too ponderous for sculpture into stone, Hapi! the waters flow. Papyrus and lotus spring up. In your boat sailing from some unknown city, your body glistens like water.

Osiris. The gods have heard my name. I am a man by the river, gazing up. Husband and tiller and reaper and king, I am lord of seasons, of that which falls and returns to light. I am he who sowed the seed. I am the bread I have made. Eat. This is such nourishing peace.