Potiphar

Poemata LXIX

Legs of a great beast / a strange quiet runs between / these pillars stand, still.

Potiphar stood in the sun, the Egyptian sun
  The antique sky with all of its pantheons
     Blue as clear water, very end of the eons
        That raised stone towards the Infinite and One;
And viewed, beneath the empillared Shade
  Once a child, cause of great consternation
    Now strangely adorned, as to lead a nation
       From earth to hell to heaven a ruler made;
Pensive, as if the brilliant summer was naught
  As if the cavorting River was not divine
     As if it was not already the end of all Time
       And the apex of joy that man had long sought;
"Joseph," he cried, "Do you not see how fine
 Is this day? And under shadows and in them you dwell
   As though you were not in paradise, but in hell
     What unreason sullies with gall such sweet wine?"
The younger spoke not, but noticed that man
   In thought he remained; face angled toward earth
     Sand-glint in the middle distance, such worth
       Shone in the eyes that through the Veil ran;
"Ra rebuke you," the old man said, without great belief
  "That you stand in shadow, your forehead a sloped roof
     To keep your eyes from him!" Posture aloof,
       He strolled, fanning himself for relief;
For the sun was a monstrous power, but Joseph spoke:
  "No paradise is it that which in seven years time
     Will vanish under the sands, and what sort of crime
       Is it for a man to keep himself from sun-stroke?"
"Did the King dream," the old minister creaked,
  "Is it true, Joseph -- face most coveted among men
     That you see with the eyes of some other God, then?
       Has such a mystery your ennui now piqued?"
Before he could reply, the old man walked on
  Waving a hand, his robe the tail of a crocodile
    Slithering as it had, back into the Nile
       And in shadow Joseph stood, Potiphar was gone.

Author’s note on voiceover: “Yes, I mispronounced ennui. It was a good take, though!”