Clifford Chapman Poet Prose Poetry

Shadows

The little clay tablets have been unearthed,

Their cuneiform secrets quite deciphered.

I sensed a poem of our century lay revealed,
with men waiting eager in the cradle's wings
for this Sumerian development.

Some five thousand years have passed by now,
yet in a deep sense the moment has never died.

Ancient poet,
juggle words for me.

Write only of a man called Enmerkar,
not that he ruled in Uruk and was born of gods.

For I would wish.........

Nor describe how he ordered Aratta,
( a city-state outside Sumer's domain),
to submit and bring precious stones,
lapis lazuli, silver, gold;

for shrines.

Or that when his demands were met with a bluff,
like a nuclear scientist he threatened,
destruction and dust.

Because having read such things a thousand times....

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