This phoenix is a dud they said
Call the priests of Ba'al to beat
Their breasts

I made all the necessary prayers
But revival seems obsolete

Who can we call?
With a good mortician we could
Stall for days
A week, said the first, if we're lucky

Yes, Yes, to Calvary!

My God! My God!

It's going to be a long night
Here with my own corpse

Where is the Book of the Dead?
I ordered it on Friday but the mail in this town -
Yes, Yes, it will be a few days
Yet - before we have the correct instructions
Mummification is complicated, he said and
we must have you properly aged

Before you're ready

The scented salts -
blood rubies -

Linen costs money, he said
And that stack of dead words
Won't bring much - a bulk deal.

So patience, I'll make all the
Arrangements, and you just go on to bed
Don't worry your pretty little head.

But I see a far green country! I said
Where I could fall at the altar
And never raise my head

By the grace of God! Do you hear
Me speak? I said

Do you hear my words? I said

He said, I know how dead books burn -
Blue in the swinging censers

Toxic smoke that drugs young girls
Who pace at night - who roll the world in small

across their narrow halls.

Don't let these grandhallucinations bloom.Please - to bed.