Ramesses

[Hawkman]

Osiris rises
heralding the flood
as a king is laid to rest.
Do you hear him,
calling from his tomb,
deep within his earthen womb?

Filleted like sun-dried fish
the Bronze-Age lord endures,
his millennial night unbroken
save for robbers’ lamps,
until at last
displayed inside a case of glass.

Pharaoh still, yet nothing;
last vestige of that power shed;
violated, stripped
by those who would be slaves.
Now they gawp and wonder
at the husk of one whose armies
shook the earth like thunder.

Such is the immortality of gods,
their names endure,
carved in time-defying stone,
their deeds recalled,
recounted by a loyal scribe;
the spin of long dead priests
their last enduring vibe.

[dafydd manton]

How the mighty are fallen, even those who believed themselves to be gods. At the end, they are but dust, as the rest of us. As you said, left to be gawped at , defeated by lesser mortals. Beautifully crafted, that one, Hawk!

[Bar22do]

.... that is if they are LESSER MORTALS, for who knows the real greatness... some of it - perhaps the loftiest - had never been described... The repose of the least among the humans is always better protected, though. Nice poem, Hawk. Thanks a lot. Bar

ah, and I loved this particularly:

"his millennial night unbroken
save for robbers’ lamps,"

[Delta40]

Filleted like sun-dried fish

very descriptive poem. wonderful line.

[Hawkman]

Hello, ducky :D

Thanks for reading and liking. I think the Vikings had the right idea, one last boat ride, a little careless playing with matches and then off to Valhalla. Why not take it all with you, eh? lol.

Sweet Bar,

The truth is there are no lesser mortals, for those who think themselves to be gods are but dust and bear the common image. Glad you loved that line as I quite like it too. :D

Live long and prosper, H

Hi D40, I see you posted a comment while I was answering the others. Glad you liked it and that line too; as I said to Bar, I quite like it too.

best, H

[hillwalker]

Nice one..... I particularly liked the last two lines, has a certain contemporary feel to it (politicians beware).

[Hawkman]

Hi hill, and thanks. this was my own slant on Shelley's,

"OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Not to be confused with Horace Smith's:

"In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place."

published shortly after Shelley's.

Both were written before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the cracking of hieroglyphics and hieratic, but inspired by the remnants of a statue of Ramesses II.

Rather than concentrate on the monuments, I thought I'd ponder on the physical remains of the pharaoh.

You are of course right to note the modernistic ending and the implications for those who set themselves above us as our masters.

Thanks for reading and liking.

Best, H

[Jerrybaldy]

Ozymandias. That one I remember. Was my first fumbling with the metaphor. and probably where Shelley got stuck in my head.
nice work
Jerry B

[Hawkman]

Thanks JB Glad you liked it. H