the powerful one

from the museum today 
you & i stole 
an Egyptian artifact

sun red disk balanced on her head,
we took
the lioness, Sekhmet,

tall & stone & stoic
"The Powerful One"
"Lady of Slaughter"
"Mistress of Dread" 

now we can replicate
her, we can build more

the goddess of violence,
disaster & illness

her pharaoh commissioned
thousands of her statue
to surround his tomb

the moral:
worship what scares you

i'm not scared of Sekhmet 
but i won't take any chances

we pull great stones
from the north shore,
place them in the yard
to begin carving,

using the first statue
as a template

rows & rows & rows
we make,

setting them
in our yard

grass turns to sand as
we work, as we carve

as we take
part in the tradition 

of fear 

up the street walk 
lionesses, their 
sleek golden bodies

sturdy even 
in the New York winter 

they watch us & lick
their lips

i don't want to be eaten
i say as i craft
another lioness face
from the stone

keep working
i tell you

that pharaoh 
made Sekhmet's statues until 
he died & now 
we stole one from 
the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art 

what an art, humans are

sometimes all 
we can do, is keep 
ourselves busy

worship the sun