Dunes Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

I lay flat on my back
My clothes covered in sand
Exposed to the elements
And helpless to save myself.

I wondered if that would be the day I died.
I wondered how long my carcass would lie there
Before being ravaged by scavenger birds
Or buried deep in the dunes by the winds.

I wondered if anyone would come looking
For the foreign explorer all had heard boasting
That she had not only the map but the key
To the legendary portal to Neter-khertet.

Just as I felt the sun was about to claim me
A shadow passed between it and my prostrate body
Sure that Anubis had appeared in the flesh with his flail
I gave my soul up to be measured on his scales.

But it did not take flight from my mortal flesh.
Instead, I felt water trickled onto my lips.
I gathered the courage to open my eyes
To find hovering above me a man dressed in white.

His camel complained as it was made to kneel down
And I felt my lifeless form lifted onto its back
Then blackness mercifully descended again
And I knew not where I would be carried.

I awoke in a tent with water and figs set out by my bed.
I could hear the revelry of desert men feasting nearby.
I still do not know if I have been saved or enslaved
But better to be a captive than bones scattered in the sand!