...in a Distant Land

By golden Atlantean lakes

upon a time we rode

and the world was young and fiery like the hearts of our horses

Priest and priestess

we tended the land

and love was like a fire we set in the grass

Our love

but the world changed and so

At the feet of Isis

we worshipped the Nile

and crocodiles rose at our call and cried in the water

Brother and sister

we ruled the sun

and glory shone brightly off the gold at our throats

Our glory

but alas again the world changed and so

Last in massive marble halls

we spoke like the gods

and sated with luxury the raw hunger of life

Emperor's purple

we wore with great stature

and power dripped from us and rebuilt the world

Our power

rebuilt the world!

But golden Atlantis lies under the wave

the fire in the grass is now cold

The land was not something devotion could save

nor were we youth able to hold

So Egypt is fallow beneath desert sand

our gold does not shine in the dark

The Nile will not nurture a mummified hand

nor float a celestial bark

And Rome? Rome is blasted and fallen to dust

the purple is only a story

And now come to naught as we feared that they must

are power and richness and glory

What can we then hold to my lover, my dear one

to what may we cling in the night?

To only each other, for all else we've touched on

has slipped through our hands like the moonlight

Christopher J. Cramer

1987?