aayoungdriving to work
sleepy eyes searching for signs
of life
rounding mount adams
on columbia parkway
asphalt nile
church of the immaculata watching over
queen’s tiara skyline
the city unfurls
buildings rising
to meet the sunlight
morning glory blossoms
in cincinnati
i’ve painted all of it
on the ceiling of the library dome in alexandria
to study the profane scope
better understanding the history
the higher i ascend
through falling ashes
this is what i know
my interpretation of the pattern
you only acknowledge the sacred
as you seek to destroy it
you’re sick
pathological
oh
how
you take such pride in your trophies
heads mounted on the wall
all wearing your mother’s pearls
the manner in which your
opossum eyes delight
in fresh kill
wax romantic about your bloody left hand
as you arrange dead flowers
i’m impervious ever since
you gouged out my ability
to experience pathos
i have become
cleopatra upon her litter
exiled
carried aloft in a bed built for an inconvenient queen
above the melded glass sands of blood and grain
desert winds my howling comfort
cast out by a tyrant brother
ptolemy’s thirteenth incarnation
each generation more of a reason
he must die in the nile
little husband
and his geldings
i am chained by the ankle for you
to this land
these people
we are egypt
through my opium haze
i see my blessed alexandria
and pray before jackal headed gods
to return me from this death
my eyes follow the light
of the marble watch tower
emanating from the isle of pharos
ancient port
deliver me guidance and knowing papyrus
so that i may find my way
to the great whore mother streets
her libraries
and temples built
i shall seduce caesar and his army
if the gods make it so
resurrect the statue of me