Sekhmet

 

Christian Colvin

Wickedness the world consumed,

Kings and lords their rule misused,

And arrogance became enthroned.

Magicians challenged the power

Of gods, building a twisted tower.

Of madness its parapets were;

Its battlements of hubris forged.

They vowed to use fell sorcery

Yea, even wicked wizardry

To commit a blasphemy:

The gods above would be deposed.

They sought to tear apart the sky

And bend the universe awry;

So nature’s laws they did defy

And Ra pronounced their cause was doomed.

The sun god spoke with all foresight:

Sisters, robed in glorious white,

Brothers: now we must unite.

This malfeasance must be suppressed.

The mortals seek to destroy light,

To make as one both dark and bright,

To tear the veil ‘twixt day and night.

Nature’s laws must be preserved.

The gods agreed this must not be;

But who to send, who else but she,

The lioness, whose eyes will see

The wicked who must be destroyed.

The tower fell before her rage;

The sand soaked red in her rampage;

The desert dark with the carnage;

The evildoers were slaughtered.

Yet Sekhmet’s wrath did not abate;

Nor would the vengeful goddess wait;

Whole cities she did decimate,

Pious and base alike were killed.

The goddess goes too far, Ra said;

With blood the river runneth red.

Soon every human will be dead;

Her vicious anger must be quelled.

To save mankind from this fell fate,

Ra mixed juice of pomegranate

With heady wine, thus to placate

Sekhmet, ‘ere the world ended.

Upon her path the brew was placed,

The blood-red wine with liquor laced;

She drank and drank, ending the chase;

Her dreadful thirst at last sated.