Poem: Faiyum Fetishist

Faiyum Fetishist                                       Published in The Stony Thursday Book (2014)*

Manchester Museum

I own this space whispers the Faiyum portrait

above his exoskeleton.

Although he fails to blink,

his hands tap a tune.

So ungenerous, so ungenerous

the melody goes.

Tagged in a glass cabinet with other gods:

God of Taxonomy, God of Embalming.

My nasal cavity bears little resemblance

to this face, a rattle in a husk.

Held together with bandage and plaster

harnessed to a figure of humanity.

Encaustic, faced into feeling

bright-eyed serious boy.

Let me marry you this instant.