L’Européenne Fayum Mummy Portrait, by Dave Day

L'Europeenne Fayum Mummy Portrait (Egypt) 100-150 A.D.

L’Européenne Fayum Mummy Portrait
 
On Roman roads from Antinopolis, you reclined,
While tasting dates in a luxurious litter.
A sandstorm hit; and panicked, scared, supine,
“She died,” Ra and Sol Invictus whispered.
 
Anubis came. The jackal discarded your brain,
while Isis wept, incanting a sorcerous dirge.
The ibis scribed “avarice” on papyrus.
Osiris nodded, you turned to windswept dust.
 
Yet on paneled cedar, eunuch master of Thrace--
Apply the thickened wax and gossamer dyes.
Entomb Ma’at. Egyptian raven of grace
Pursues a fennec fox with onyx eyes.
 
Now your soul illumines the Louvre—the ancient portal.
Alexandrian goddess reborn. At last, immortal.

Dave Day

Dave Day is an attorney from Honolulu, Hawaii.  He has published articles in the Emory International Law Review, the Hawaii Bar Journal, and The Dartmouth.