Egyptian Afterlife
- Jacqueline Jules
- 24 hours ago
- 1 min read
A poem by Jacqueline Jules
Deemed useless
by ancient Egyptians, the brain
was removed from the body.
Apparently not too difficult,
the brain being 75% water.
A little jiggling with a hook
through a chiseled hole
and the old cerebrum liquefies.
Flip the body over and the organ
with all those disturbing thoughts
can be drained and discarded.
Not preserved in a fancy jar
like the liver, lungs, intestines,
and stomach. The brain had no
place of honor in a pharaoh’s tomb.
No ceremony on a scale
the way they weighed the heart.
No effort to keep anxiety
in the afterlife.
Hear Jacqueline read her poem:
Jacqueline Jules is the author of Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021), Itzhak Perlman's Broken String, winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press, and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in over 100 publications. Visit her online at www.jacquelinejules.com.
Image: Sarcophagus by Narcisco Arellano