AKHENATEN'S TEACHER
The sun, o king, shone before you. The sun
mighty one, will shine on after. Come walk
among the tombs. Yes, it’s dark. Jackals wail.
No fear, king. They feed mornings. Their tails
brush off the moon. They eat the dead. The sun
chases them back to sands. I will now talk
of God. I’ll tell you, king, no children’s tales.
God has no name. Say Aten, if you must.
He brings rain, wheat, he makes the river rise
each year. Those others you call gods are ghosts
that haunted dead kings. They wander, lost,
among tombs, where your ancestors are dust.
Do not fear dust, o king, fear the old lies.
Here. Now. The sun. Bow to the lord of hosts.
Mark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up in southern California. His latest poetry collection, Roshi San Francisco, was just published by Norfolk Publishing. Starting from Tu Fu was recently published by Encircle Publications.
He is very fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Miles Davis, Kafka and Dante. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the activist and documentarian, Joan Juster where he made his marginal living pointing out pretty things. Now, like everyone else, he’s unemployed.
He has published 2 novels and three chapbooks and two full length collections so far. His first chapbook won the Negative Capability Award.
Titles on request.
A meager online presence can be found at https://www.facebook.com/MarkJMitchellwriter/
A primitive web site now exists: https://www.mark-j-mitchell.square.site/
I sometimes tweet @Mark J Mitchell_Writer