2/23/2006

Unknown Man E (draft on the finding of an unmarked mummy)

That summer, the jackal gods
guarded the underground
black-desert kingdom,

secrets kept locked
to their wells-

grave wax, sheepskin,
hennaed nails

the color of rust
on fossilized shale.

His name, not a name
but a reason to rest

whose heart fixed
to chamber, an egg

softly slipped in its shell,
a terrible, motionless season.

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