Commentary and Philosophy Poetry posted August 24, 2024

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A crumbling monument

The Sphinx

by estory

The Sphinx keeps its secrets.

Its silence contains civilizations,

Dynasties, lost worlds.

Between its paws

The sands of the desert shift

Like a burial shroud,

Covering the kingdoms of Egypt.

What's left of its face

Seems inscrutible as life itself,

Or the mummies lying within it

Waiting for some long promised solstice.

The Book of the Dead

Never opens. The stars overhead

Have turned and moved on,

Leaving behind King Tut's tomb

And Cleopatra's Needle.

The Sphinx, like everything else made by man,

Only passes away. The Earth lives on,

Changing as it has always changed around it,

Burrying its stillness with the desert.

A king who once thought he could live forever

Had the Sphynx carved from the cold, solid rock,

Believing it could come to life.

But the immeasurable Sahara

Swallows it whole, and the Scirroco

Roars over its carcass.

III

So the Sphynx is dead. The Pharoes of Egypt

Still lie in their tombs. Their treasures,

Carried away by grave robbers,

Have come to nothing.

The craftsmen who piled it up into its ruins

No longer hope to be remembered for it.

Instead, they seem to haunt the desert

Watching for signs of a star.

After the Sphynx has passed away,

When there is nothing left of it

Or the great pyramids,

Perhaps then we will see the light.

Perhaps then the spring will come at last

And the desert will come back to life.

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In keeping with the ruins theme of this collection, I continue to sprinkle it with these references to ancient ruins and use them as metaphors. Here the Sphynx is a symbol of the ephemeral nature of mankind, and the folly of celebrating the accomplishments of civilizations. Death is the great eraser, the great underminer, of our ambitions. And time is another eraser, and underminer. In truth our span here and our imprint here is quite brief, and transitory. Best not to store up treasures here where thieves break in and steal, and rather store them up in heaven. But what is treasured in heaven? Probably the highest value is on compassion, and love. estory

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A crumbling monument

The Sphinx

by estory

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