Did I see you there among the bones?
Did you stalk me through the mummy’s hatch?
I wandered for an hour past cross-sections of the world,
Where all of humankind turns our last minute on the midnight watch.
Did you see me passing right in front of you?
Or did you let me slip out of your sight?
Or did that present chance to meet
Lose the meaning you once thought it might?
I read the bone scholars’ words
And like the fate of all the lizard emperors
This love I feel I should rethink
I must believe it’s not really extinct…
Just changing shape…and taking flight
Are we cultures in conflict? Are we lovers or rivals?
Trapped behind walls erected for our sheer survival?
What is worth preserving of the trust we built together?
Can I raise a monument to us that lasts forever?
Or are we bound to decompose to other states of matter?
The curator arranges lifeless artifacts to speak
Their long significance to anyone;
I want us to matter in the long run.
Though you’ve clearly conquered me
Please don’t burn the library --
Stay…see
Please, remember me.
2007
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