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                Retail Egyptology
                By Doug Tanoury

                In the supermarket
                Where navel oranges are stacked high
                With great precision
                Like the great pyramid of Giza,
                And Santa Rosa plums
                Form a lesser monument
                For a more mediocre monarch
                In The Valley of the Kings.

                I am the jackal -faced god,
                A duster of old bones
                And petrified flesh,
                Who breathes the desert air
                At 5:00 a.m. and peers wearily
                Over the meat counter,
                For a fleeting glimpse
                Of the floating head

                Of Queen Nefertiti
                In hopes her regal gaze
                Will fall on my English cut roast.

                Awake Osiris to the sound
                Of the Nile's water
                And sea birds calling from the reeds
                To catch the gleam of light
                On stainless steel countertops
                For it is the deli meats
                Hanging in long strands from the ceiling,
                Indeed it is the garlic bologna and hard salami
                That unites the upper and lower kingdoms.


                © Copyright 2004, Doug Tanoury, All Rights Reserved.




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Document last modified on: 09/28/2004

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