Forgotten Ground Regained
Blood for the Mummy
A Shakespearean sonnet in amphibrachic tetrameter.
It alliterates the paired beats in each half-line.
I read through the rite, and its formula frees her.I turn from her tomb, to peruse the horizon:a zig, now one zag, if I gaze now on Giza;the somnolent sky, and the legend it lies on....I wait for a while, in my vigil divine,and listen for life — or its terrible twin.The twilight untangling, the calm in decline,she crawls from her crypt — and the gutting begins.A zig, now one zag.... By her crystalline claws,my people lie pale, in a cradle of claret.The swine have been slaughtered. The demon withdraws —for Khufu is calling her:
Grand in his garret,once dust, now he’ll dine, in the pyramids’ palace....I gaze now on Giza: the mountains of malice.
Grand in his garret,once dust, now he’ll dine, in the pyramids’ palace....I gaze now on Giza: the mountains of malice.
Copyright © Anthony Etherin, 2023.
First published in Robots of Babylon