Challenging Poetry

Egypt: a perspective

their world was full
of gods—weighing feathers
against hearts,
and pushing the sun
like a dung beetle across the heavens.
in every animal—
the face of a god.
what would they think of us
who see the world
upside down—
the upper kingdom
dangling at the bottom of the map
where it can slip
off the Nile as it diminishes
into tributaries and streams
high in the hills.

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