Broken backs and calloused hands dragging a large limestone block; sand-eaten teeth in desert lands while priests drink wine and pray and talk; sun-parched lips cracking with work and heat as ramps rise toward a tyrant sun and the slave-drivers lazily whip and beat blistered skin until blisters run.
The pyramids rose in Ancient Egypt
as emblems for each ruler who had bound
his people to build his stepping-stone crypt
so he might ascend his own burial ground.
Higher, he demanded, as the pyramid rose,
seeking the eye of falcon-headed Horus
and when one pharaoh was buried, another then chose
a new site to continue the endless chore, thus.
While modern humans gawp at these wonders
built in the mysterious and ancient past,
we seem to learn little from their blunders—
wisdom being as elusive as cat-headed Bast.
So while each pharaoh idiotically bethought
himself the steward of the all-seeing Ra,
it was with poorer souls he thereby wrought
the terminating stairways for his flighty ka.
So many died so one might live
on in the imaginations of those to come,
and the pharaoh, in turn, would thereby give
a prime example of vanitas vanitatum.
For while he was embalmed in his skyward tomb
he never did ascend beyond dog-headed Anubis,
but like the rest of us succumbed to his doom
and his crypt measured the heights of his hubris.
Stephen Marshall. Writer, illustrator, layabout. Find him on Amazon, maybe. He has paperback and kindle books listed there. He also writes Supernatural Romance under the name S.C. Foster (because his fiancee pushed him to do so). He seems to have a knack for the Romance genre, much to his chagrin. Having pursued Children's literature he is particularly proud of his Children's novel series "Lost And Found", which begins with "Chloe Among The Clover", continues recently with "Stormy Within The Strawberry Patch" and may, in some future potentiality, culminate with "Candice Through The Picket Fence". These are novels for children (including his insistent nephew), but they are also written for adults who are children at heart. His short story collection, "The Eldritch Diaries", centers primarily upon Cosmic Horror and Body Horror, combining Lovecraft's mythos with the motifs of Sigmund Freud. His largest poetry collection, "Broken Crown Kings", contains over two hundred poems and two short novellas concerning the fleeting nature of the world and Man's place within it. Recently he has published a smaller book of poetry concerning Kentucky, Moonshine, and Ghosts called "Moonshine And Spirit Chasers". A much larger collection, entitled '"Nevermore" 99 Rhymes For $0.99' is also available. For those seeking supernatural and folklore, his collection "Weeping Cherry" is available also.
https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Marshall/e/B07536QKD9?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_fkmrnull_1&qid=1554215427&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
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