Pharaoh Menkuare Poem by Joseph S. Josephides

Pharaoh Menkuare was consuming the years of his youth,

by buying slaves, men and women, (but not their souls)
by piling up papyrι(but had no time or will for knowledge)
he bargained prices, quantities (was deaf for values or qualities) .
He believed would live long (but short, when he had a nightmare) ,
he claimed compliance by all (education for all, when in delirium) ,
he supported his admirers but persecuted those he admired.

What is power? Is a serene that fastens you on the mast
or a vertigo (if there is any difference among those two) .

But when his last time came close and realised that
he had neither important to declare nor an achievement,
-such as the Pyramid by his grandpa Cheops,
which is a Geometry lauding the Almighty-
he ordered to erect for him a tiny pyramid
(to deposit quietly his body and soul, in there):
a modest pyramid, bowing to that of his father Chephren,
with him humbly obeying to all past advices of his dad.

You look like the little moon that rotates and borrows light
from the earth, your dad, from the sun, your granny Cheops;
see there, things are different in that celestial peace.
From now on, no passion prevents you to try,
to appreciate with contrition all that you have despised,
among all things do prefer a good fame, a respect
that lasts beyond all (if the word all means all, at all) .

Your repentance, even breathing your last, is a deposition
of the Soul, is a Pyramid founded still on moving sand.


© JosephJosephides