Classic Poem

The dazed,
the bored,
the wondering,
the wistful,
all passed by the great sarcophagus of Uresh-Nofer, once high priest to Müt, goddess of Egyptian skies,
and strolled onward, or stalked, amongst the jades, the bronzes, the porcelains, the ancient fabrics,
thus giving place to the dazed,
the bored,
the wondering,
the wistful.
I remained by the great sarcophagus.

Lovely is the Müt of the huge stone lid,
ethereally lovely, even to the chiseling — —
itself the impalement of a racial mirage;
awesomely lovely is the naked presence, ghostly, nebulous, even illusive,
a lithesome deity delicate of contour,
imposing of posture, her poise inimitable — —
herself standing at ease, though firmly, at one side of the terrestrial disc, thus facing toward it,
and bending over it, divinely superior to the merely supple,
to touch, on the other side, with the tips of unstraining fingers,
at the very level of her reposeful feet.
Eerily chaste she seems, or celestially ecstatic, — —
Ah, but I was thinking of Uresh-Nofer, the consecrated one,
the dazed,
or bored,
or wondering,
or wistful — —
perchance youthful and yet resigned,
perchance aged and yet incorrigible,
but permitted, or condemned, to lie forever on his back,
and stare straight upward toward the human zenith.