Mural
In absence of Isis
a hierophant sets his
scant offering at a crude altar
before the tilted gateway of Her
ruined temple a sphinx-
crowned basalt
sarcophagus bars
the way to nothing.
A granite glacier
floats upon a sea of ash
and as Cassandra foretold Ilium’s
ruin, no one heeds, escapes
the wrath of Vesuvius –
our own
eschathon.
Return, O sister lover of the god
O Throne-crowned One
to loose your milky Nile
upon us
the doomed.
@ /cual March 2008
Mural found in the ruins of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii. Artist unknown.