November 2020
Bio Note: I've gone off track recently, working on a fictional account of agricultural toxification of water, livestock, and
crops in a fictional community in the sunbelt.
Author's Note:
In the ancient Egyptian Pantheon,
the cult of Thoth, god of scribes,
writing & other dominions, was
not extensive. Seshat was his
female counterpart.
Author's Note:
In the ancient Egyptian Pantheon,
the cult of Thoth, god of scribes,
writing & other dominions, was
not extensive. Seshat was his
female counterpart.
Thoth
After all these years you would think That you would have written to me, To send some assurance that after An honorable life, I will not have to pay the ferryman More than once, that I will be Judged worthy of some small grace, A favorable review Where it counts, a reader or two Once I have passed, diviner of magic & time, the moon, most underrated Of gods, I relate to you, Figure on my desk all gold & black With head of the sacred ibis, (Your bill competes with your stylus,) Be there at the weighing of my heart, Let it be no heavier than the feather On the opposite scale So that it won’t be cast away Nor saved for some future life Such as I have known, Rather allow this soul To live in fantasy, a dreaming Head in a dreaming dormitory Of wonder & felicity only Like some protozoan mindless of itself Among kindly forms all color & warmth, Say, eternal, glowing voyagers Complete with present sense, Without conscience or the grief Of this earth, let me be Without the need for words, or a pen, Or reluctance, or bread & bone, Or this world, or friend.
Sheshat
I have seen you bathing
In the river under the moon,
Mistress of the Long House of Books.
Has your companion told you
About me?
Has he?
How I passed the test,
How my heart weighed well.
For this, surely, you, the loveliest
Of your kind, could place a volume
Of mine in a secure archive to be present at the unveiling
Of the next universe,
Or the next, complete, divine.
These poems were originally published in Nimrod
as finalists for their Pablo Neruda Award,
and were included later in Transversales, (2013).
and were included later in Transversales, (2013).
©2020 Michael Gessner
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