Sacred bird, white feathers
bleached by the sun, the black ring
covering your neck like a shadow
cast down from the moon.

Wings beating
your body like the heart it seems
to be, supported on legs that form a triangle.

The only water to pass your lips was pure
as the Egypt you called home,
nesting in the temples
and mummified.

Threatened wanderer, pining to death
if you left the confines
of the Nile.