Just Another Egyptian Sunset

If everyone you knew lived and died
by the swell and writhe of one great river
and everything arrived by water: grain,
spotted cattle, giant stones for builders,
the workers’ daily beer and bread,
tall spears for soldiers, the dead,
even fire, flaring in a brazier on the deck
of a kitchen boat: naturally you’d believe
that all things float, even in the Sinai desert
you’d understand only a boat sailed by a god
could move the sun across the sky.


Manhattan Review 2013