On Finding Myself Pregnant in Egypt, by Emily Bowles

Bees at Luxor Temple, Egypt, probably around 650 B.C.

On Finding Myself Pregnant in Egypt

There is no bee at Luxor. 
I do not eat honey. 
No bee, no honey. 

There is no goddess. 
Artemis or Demeter, 
Melissa or Potnia.
They disappear, 
disappoint. 

No bee, no goddess 
for me.

Emily Bowles

Emily Bowles works for the University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extension.  Her published poems include: “Scale” in the Blue Heron Review, “Her Hieroglyphs” in Page & Spine “Bird Made of Metal” and “Bird, Not a Baby” in Synaeresis, “The World in My Daughter’s Earring” in The Road Not Taken, and “Contents of a Canopic Jar” in The Ekphrastic Review.