In the cosmos

There is balm as well as bitterness

And that balm is Nepenthe.



Yet underneath endless oceans of sand

I have not forgotten

Those who had betrayed me.

Silent and unmovable,

I am not sorry

For I had hated the light.



Now I ride with the undead

Across the night-sky

And play by day

Amongst the catacombs of Nephren-Ka

In the sealed and unknown

Valley of Hadoth by the Nile.



I know that light is not for me

Save that of the moon over the rock tombs of Neb

Nor any debauchery save the unknown feasts of Nitokris

Beneath the great pyramid.



But in the loneliness of entombment,

I welcome the bitterness of alienage.