Set, Egyptian God of Darkness and Evil, Speaks of Job Reassignment, Past Lives and Love:
Set, Egyptian God of Darkness and Evil,
Speaks of Job Reassignment, Past Lives and Love:
(Interviewer’s Notes: If he had demanded my blood, my death,
if he had demanded anything, I wouldn’t be consumed by melancholy.)
I’ve bathed in black, called up the Jackal God
for you. I’ve come as storms. I’ve ravished skies,
carved up your Nile, ate fishermen and priests,
reed boats and Pharaohs’ wives in the same meal.
Of course, this is my second life. In my
first life I worked in wombs assembling bronze-
skinned boys from clay and knitting black-haired girls
from grains of sun and shafts of wind. But death
and storms are gifted so much prayer. And once
the child is born a god of birth will starve
to death in want of praise. It’s fine. I’ll wear
this suit you prayed to black. But who could love
your life more than this God of Woe? Who else
eats stars and still will pause to bless your child?
Appears in Measure
Taken from “…hide behind me…”
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