The Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead
by Ally Malinenko
In my dream
the crocodile ate my heart,
right off the giant scale,
just like the Egyptians said he would.
I watched his scissor teeth,
jagged and miniature, thousands of them
slice through the meat of me,
his mouth filled with my blood.
He ate my heart and inside me, now
a beetle, it’s twitchy feathered limbs tickling my skin.
This was the bitter end.
The feather, the scale,
this was not going to hell,
in the Book of the Dead,
this was the vanishing.
No redemption, only the horror
of ceasing to be.
But this was all symbolic
as the Egyptians knew
and you know
and I know and I woke
with the steady thrumming in my chest,
and the knowledge of this:
Your life is happening again,
You shall emerge each day
and return each evening,
the sunlight on your chest
and later,
a lamp lit at night for your guide.
You will be told,
Welcome, welcome
to the house of the living.
Take that Bainbridge Scholars!!! Sorry, i get an image Rachel Weisz from ‘The Mummy’ reading this poem to me with her cute dimples.
Dream poetry can be so visceral, epic, and telling. It’s good you came away with some light at the end of the Nile here. This line caught my attention: “I watched his scissor teeth,
jagged and miniature, thousands of them
slice through the meat of me,
his mouth filled with my blood.” –it conveys real experience or at least the feeling of real experience! Nicely done!
We all can know death in a million ways but it takes something very special to know death, use it, and to know life. I loved the ending: “Your life is happening again,
You shall emerge each day
and return each evening,
the sunlight on your chest
and later,
a lamp lit at night for your guide.
You will be told,
Welcome, welcome
to the house of the living.” These imperatives run smoothly alongside the Egyptian mythos/belief…that requires imagination, insight, and wisdom–thanks for sharing! Excellent read!
I just came across this lovely comment now and wanted to thank you for reading it. It means a lot to me that you did.
My pleasure! Keep writing and submitting, Ally!