Soldiers of the Pharaoh

by Silvia Millward

Behind fingered museum glass
a Pharaoh's body lies,
his moment of death fixed
in gold-and-turquoise amethyst.

Mesmerised by the book of the dead,
he relinquished his hold on Egypt
to gain entrance to the afterlife,
leaving his guts to perish in canopic jars.

Believing Pharaoh would rule for eternity,
his soldiers searched for a ray of light
that glowed and burned like the sun
or luminescent wings of an eagle.

Now their bleached bones
fleck the Egyptian sand,
that drifts across the Valley
smoothing disintegrating pyramids.

Once Pharaoh's soldiers held acacia bows,
cowhide shields, and copper spearheads,
weapons that have been stolen
or like flesh surrendered to time.

Loyally, they fought his enemies,
tended his fields and protected his tomb,
then, as a vast army of shadow ghosts
witnessed Egypt's treasure plundered.

Their souls call out to Pharaoh
when the desert howls,
as he walks in fields of reeds,
leaving Osiris to judge the dead.

Sands cannot carry their spirits forever.
Pharaoh must remember and bid Osiris
release his grip on the hearts of his soldiers
and grant them their judgement day.

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Soldiers of the Pharaoh