Twilight On The Field Of Reeds

[poliphilo]

All the poems I've ever posted on LJ are now collected in the Memories file. To celebrate here's an addition to their number- 

TWILIGHT ON THE FIELD OF REEDS

 

The old Egyptians are winking out

On the astral- so my informant claims.

Her theory is they rely on us

Thinking about them, speaking their names

To raise the psychic energies

That keep them in the Field of Reeds,

But now our input is dropping off

Which makes her sad because she’s a fan

Of theirs and on the way to becoming

An adept in Egyptian magic.

Me, I’m much less sympathetic.

Haven’t they had their money’s worth,

I ask, of feasts and dancing girls

And all the things you see them doing

In murals- shooting ducks for instance

Or spearing hippopotami?

Isn’t it time they got in touch

With how things are back here on earth

Where all that stiff, hieratic grace

No longer cuts it, but (thank heaven)

Artificial hips are in

And dental care is a lot improved?

You’ve rested up, so come on,  guys,

Go get yourselves an incarnation.

Comments

[fickleasever.livejournal.com]

I like it, I like it a lot.
Curious image in my mind now, though... of ancient Egyptians wearing dentures...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They had terrible problems with their teeth. Most of them seemed to have been killed by dental abcesses. It was all down to the sand in the bread.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

I like this, a lot. In Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series, Death has to incarnate herself in a human body - and die - every 100 years, just so she remembers what it feels like to be human and die.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I must read Sandman. I seem to be about the only person on LJ who hasn't.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

You and me both, I just recently started, as you know. The first collection gets off to a bumpy start and wobbles over into your standard horror comics territory, but it really hits its stride in the story "The Sound of Her Wings," which not incidentally is the introduction of the Death character.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

...all that stiff, hieratic grace....

Wonderful.

A local teacher got into trouble from some fundamentalist parents recently because she was teaching Egyptian history and mentioned Ra.

The parents said they didn't want their children learning about any other gods but Jesus.

--

Your poem recalled a new-age book I read in the eighties that said dolphins were dying out because we didn't love them enough and could we remember to mentally apologize to the dolphins, please, because they were gentle souls and teachers? :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Isn't that silly?- about Ra, I mean. How can you teach ancient history and not talk about ancient religion?

I hope the education authority gave them short shrift.

There was a news story about a Japanese fishing village where they go on a dolphin killing spree every year. Surely if dolphins were as intelligent as the new agers say they are they'd have learned to avoid that stretch of the coast by now.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Or maybe the dolphins are wanting to die, from lack of love...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Poor things.....