Nesyamun
Priest and Scribe of the Karnak Temple
(Mummified remains displayed in Leeds City Museum, England)
Forty layers
of incensed linen
stripped
in the slow
seduction
of science.
Cumin, myrrh,
oils of cedar
and cinnamon
whose aromatics
swirl
like the potent scent
of burnt
offerings.
Here, beneath
a layer of spice
and sawdust,
your face
relinquishes
perpetual night.
After three millennia,
your mouth
bares teeth
bright as
minnows
in an evening
lake,
soft palate
fallen
like the roof
of an abandoned
temple.
We’re told
it may have been
a honey bee,
all swift hum
and needle,
who stung
your song
to stone.
Frank Paino earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. His manuscript, Pietà, won the 2023 Jacar Press Chapbook Competition and is forthcoming in 2024. His third book, Obscura, was published by Orison Books in 2020. He has received a Pushcart Prize, The Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature, and an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. His poems have appeared in a variety of literary publications, including Crab Orchard Review, Catamaran, North American Review, World Literature Today, and Lake Effect, as well as a number of anthologies. (Photo courtesy of Gerrie Paino)
