Ramses shuffles a proud and long-haired Gaze into a gilded Mirror standing naked and ashamed before the Mighty newly penitent King. His eyes regally Laugh from his god-kissed face, favored in the laps of the Nile, the necks of Syria, the prone peace-forced beds of Jordan. In his Ears ring sounds of Conquests remembered like Sirius winds, golden Coital gasps, studious whip-welted chisels erecting his Posterity, and the slipping of god's Eye into the harrowed Nile; all mingled with the roar of some other god's pillar of Fire, sparkling Waters murmuring from a parted sea.
He touches the Mirror and shifts its stance to catch Ra's glinting smile, the City below. How Mighty do his Pillars untoppled guard the resenting Desert, his newly benevolent Face strong-shouldered on Stone four stories high! Ramses closes his eyes against the Crimson smile of Ra, Knowing it also shines happily on the unflooded Plains; he dreams himself beside the flowing Water, Reeds shivering in the Heat, Osirises silent pull when he rests his Hand in the River.