Pharaoh, up there in your sun boat, what do you think of our moon ship? You, who were raised from your tomb into the firma-
ment's eye,
presence
leaving your mummied remains, a reminder to circling
ages,
speak of our leap to the void, mention our thundering probes.
Are they the same old Pyramid, stretching its edges to Heaven,
honed, mathematical sides sliced from the taxable land, wealth of the delta, the great blocks dragged by the laboring thousands,
grunting up causeways to heap high your magnificent ☐ toy,
visible over the miles, overwhelming the souls of the peasants?
Glitterer, how it could draw worshippers out of the
wastes! Wandering shepherds could see it, humanity's rational
shine like eternity, stamped still on the wandering sands. Never before had it been, this thing that could fathom their
musings,
saying to mutable earth: Men shall be separate now.
Whereupon,
Pharaoh,
you captured them, fed them,
in- duced them to serve you.
Always more slaves were required,
mortar and always more bricks.
Moses, the builder of nations--what was it he set in the desert.
mounted invisibly there, calling from Sinai's top