Tuesday, November 3, 2009

XXVIII. A battered limestone head

In the clauted (cleated?) gyre of the Age of the Good Remainder:

After feigning death, the secondary wife of the white

Moth pharaoh

Provides part of the key to unlock the wooden shrine

Of the mysterious occupant of the Dessoae tomb,

The faceless hero with a battered limestone head

Sheathed in pearls, his skull pierced with a gold arrow.

The noble face on the unstained coffin had been broken

In the notorious century following its discovery,

Needlessly mutilated by the hostile scrutiny of scholars

Seeking clues without the holy quality of mercy.

Forty minutes before an unequalled storm of rain and fire,

Earthquakes and gravity halted the discredited work;

Two upper spans of majestic high-ceilinged rooms

Were obliterated.

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