votive notes from Cairo

We found them. We found a secret. Beatnix, bone trips, CairoGrind cosmetics on slate, vaulted offerings, mother crocodile warming her babies in her mouthA fish plays hi-hat cymbals beside its open jawSingle file through Cairo with Mr. Blue and Jedidiah The pyramid is shaped like a sunray — light is eternityTravel at light speed and you live foreverEgypt starts with a guy in a Santa Cruz shirt saying 69 if you know what I meanCairo is beautiful, says the driver, as the whole city looks like dust Mosques rising over overpasses, red plastic chairs filled for hoursThe gentle hustle that begins with I’m just trying to help youTwo crows getting sprinkler time — power animals in the medianCleopatra Hotel glowing by the fountain’s edgeOsiris cut into 42 pieces and scattered across the provincesIsis flying to gather the body back togetherAnubis the jackal mummifying the god for one more night of lifeHorus the falcon losing his eye in battle and gaining a symbol of protectionThe Eye of Horus guarding kings from magic, sickness, and envyThe sun sets here and rises again in the underworldYour heart weighed against the feather of truthMake your heart light as a featherForty-two judges for forty-two confessionsI did not steal. I did not pollute the river. I did not lie.Conscience as the scale inside your chestIf your heart is light, you are given the ankh — key of lifeImmortality as balance, AC humming for the first time this trip in the desert Another sunrise. Another judgment. Another chance to lighten the heart