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
