Biography of a Mummy

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BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Biography of a Mummy

#1 Post by BobBradshaw » 26 Aug 2020, 21:53

Biography of a Mummy


X-rays reveal poles thrust up his spine,
the poles dating from the Dark Ages.
His lower jaw is missing, stolen
and ground, perhaps, to a fine powder
and sold to Chinese traders.
The poles would have held him together,
brittle toes and fingers broken
as they stashed him back into his case.

He reappeared in 1893, a freak
in a side show. He was sold
to a Mr. Monjeau, a professor,
in 1895. A butt of classroom jokes,
he became an heirloom
for Mr. Monjeau's sister,
and lived like a recluse in her attic.

He made it West somehow in 1930.
He made a career of small parts
in horror movies, popping up in them
for the next twenty years.

Somehow he retired to a basement
of a museum, and lived in anonymity
until we found him in 1981.

Fragments of his life and body,
like our own histories—
purposely forgotten or kept secret—
were missing. We memorialized him
as we would want ourselves
remembered in our last moments,
in an exquisite lie. We displayed him
as a pharaoh under a spackled Orion,
which rises into an eternal
and forgiving sky.


note: This is a reworked poem, once published long ago.

Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

Re: Biography of a Mummy

#2 Post by Michael (MV) » 27 Aug 2020, 15:49

Hi Bob,

I read a stanza break after "in 1981."

That prompts me to further suggest breaks within giving each episode of the fragmented history its own stanza, analogous to a chapter.

Michael (MV)

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Biography of a Mummy

#3 Post by BobBradshaw » 27 Aug 2020, 23:10

Thanks, Michael....I'll come up with some breaks

Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

Re: Biography of a Mummy

#4 Post by Michael (MV) » 28 Aug 2020, 12:13

Hi Bob,

Life-like that "mummy" doesn't appear in the body

Thanatography    someone else - a thanatographer - telling the story of the subject's death and afterlife.

Consider leaving "mummy" out of the title, too; and replace "biography" with this suggestive title:

 "thanatographical"

^^ At first cryptic & esoteric; then becomes clear.& familiar,

and perhaps befitting to the title space.


Mother . .
always a murmur
never a mummy

murmurs not mummies

😎

Michael (MV)

Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

Re: Biography of a Mummy

#5 Post by Michael (MV) » 28 Aug 2020, 12:20

Bob,

also a stanza break after:
"for the next twenty years"

By the way, because the original of this poem has been published, let's not consider it for the upcoming September IBPC . Thanks.

I have enjoyed reading & workshopping your poem. Thanks, Bob for posting it.

Michael (MV)


quote=BobBradshaw post_id=37209 time=1598555449 user_id=6265]
Thanks, Michael....I'll come up with some breaks
[/quote]

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Biography of a Mummy

#6 Post by BobBradshaw » 28 Aug 2020, 21:16

Thx, Michael...I have added the stanza break. I'll think about the title.

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