I’m your mummy, mother! March 24, 2008

   

My organs were extracted

and then placed into a jar

in which she poured herbs, spices

all imported from afar

my corpse was washed with natron

and was stuffed with rags and sand

then my mother stitched me up

with pale and trembling hands

but when I saw the hieroglyphs

and read their strange inscriptions

“Mum!” I shouted out at once

“you know we ain’t Egyptians!”

 

A trip to the museum put the idea in her head

I never would have minded if I’d actually been dead.

 

Paul Hughes 2008