The Walls Do Not Fall (Excerpts)

VIII

So we reveal our status

with twin-horns, disk, erect serpent,

though these or the double-plume or lotus

are, you now tell us, trivial

intellectual adornment;

poets are useless,

more than that,

we, authentic relic,

bearers of the secret wisdom,

living remnant

of the inner band

of the sanctuaries' initiate,

are not only 'non-utilitarian',

we are 'pathetic':

this is the new heresy;

but if you do not even understand what words say,

how can you expect to pass judgement

on what words conceal?

yet the ancient rubrics reveal that

we are back at the beginning:

you have a long way to go,

walk carefully, peak politely

to those who have done their worm-cycle,

for gods have been smashed before

and idols and their secret is stored

in man's very speech,

in the trivial or

the real dream; insignia

in the heron's crest,

the asp's back,

enigmas, rubrics promise as before,

protection for the scribe;

he takes precedence of the priest,

stands second only to the Pharaoh.