"“NO REST FOR THE DEAD, WICKED PHARAOH”" by Paul J. Doyle

“NO REST FOR THE DEAD, WICKED PHARAOH”

by Paul J. Doyle

Yawning shriveled parchment face with rotten eyes

Embalmed, leering, scaring away the nauseated flies

Disinterred and swinging on a rusting hook

Once the Pharaoh, now an anonymous crook

Your bombastic life filled with petty lies

Whip to the crack, flail to the slaves

Suffering under charlatan knaves

Knotted backs trembling, pocked with scars

Destinies written on the uncaring stars

Persecute the heathens from barbaric enclaves

Galloping fearless horses pull the chariot of wars

Sinewy soldiers savagely fierce, ridden with sores

Plucked from overcrowded farms on the Nile

Charging and trampling opponents for miles

Gluttonous officers beaming, rotten to the core.

Pyramids soaring inexorably to the clouds

Extorted tithing padding pharaohs under shrouds

Behind the scenes in the glorified palace

Pharaoh celebrates with Satan, raising the chalice,

Chuckling, triumphant and immeasurably proud.

Pharaoh overwhelms his noble-born foes

Satan’s imparted magic keeping them on their toes

Ungodly powers deposing the Deities and the High Priest

The purge has ended and the new “god” gets his special feast

Beautiful women dance and twirl in skimpy new clothes

Pharaoh’s “New” Egypt is a much changed place—

A never-ending stream of “relics” to deface.

The priests of Ra hide in catacombs,

Defiant of their impending dooms.

Satan pulls the real strings and sets the pace.

Oppressed Egyptians chafe under Pharaoh’s rule

Satan opportunistically concocts a new tool.

Pharaoh’s arrogance reaches astounding height

His staff is powerless without Satan’s might

Satan knows the time is ripe to depose the fool.

Counter-revolution breaks out across the land

Twenty years’ feeding from an autocratic Hand

Forced to worship unholy abominations

Banned from the old denominations

Time to sweep the Heretic under the sand!

Death and bloodshed on a tremendous scale;

Satan is beyond catching the tiger by the tale.

The Nile floods on cue, unleashing a plague

Pharaoh’s powers weaken, increasingly vague.

Satan stops his heart and covers up his trail.

Dead Pharaoh is mummified and sealed away

The Old Gods resume their national sway.

The new godly king purges and launches wars of “Good”

Patching up rifts; Dead Pharaoh was “misunderstood.”

Satan chuckles knowingly, waiting for another day . . .

In Guanajuato, Mexico of old, the dead were displaced

When the grave tax was unpaid, the cadavers were replaced.

Mummified by the elements and left for years by the score

Dangling in groups, indignity leaking from every sore

Their desperately impoverished families unsolaced.

Satan rises again in Guanajuato with brand new tricks

He switches the Pharaoh with a Mexican layer of bricks

The laborer rests at last, entombed in monumental glory

Pharaoh swings with peons, but that is not the end of his story.

Satan always needs piddling fools to get his unholy kicks.

Yawning shriveled parchment face with rotten eyes

Embalmed, leering, scaring away the nauseated flies.

Disinterred and swinging on a rusting hook

Once the Pharaoh, now an anonymous crook

Your bombastic life filled with petty lies.