when they come to the source
they always want information.
when they conquer they want
the secrets of the land
that its priests conceal.
and so the incas would rather
let the spaniards have the gold
which for them had little value
than reveal to them their temples
or the heart of their tiered gnosis
or their gods high up
the mountains where
peak speaks to peak
among the clouds,
the rockfaces terraced
and textured for agriculture.
ptolemy wanted the secrets
of the land of pyramids
and ordered the high priest
at sebennytus, where isis
has her temple, to write down
the dreams, philosophy
the narrative and religion
of ancient egypt. we don’t know
if manetho asked why.
we don’t know either what
manetho concealed in what he
revealed in the innumerable
volumes that flowed
from his hermes-touched stylus.
but ptolemy forbade their translation
and they were used only
for the solemn instruction
of the greeks.
manetho’s books were the central
columns of alexandria.
students of aristotle drank
from his fountain. egyptian
priests were professors at
the alexendrine schools.
eratosthenes composed,
under the impulse of the greek
spear, a chronology
of theban kings. horapollo
wrote the purest hieroglyphics
of his time. the true story
of civilisation is more obscure
than the oracles and more
twisted than cyrenean snakes.