The Nile in Flood Season
America today is a girl-destroying place.
Everywhere girls are encouraged to sacrifice
their true selves.
Deep structure is ... the struggle to find
a self, the attempt to integrate the past and
present ... to find a place in the larger culture.
-- Reviving Ophelia, Dr. Mary Pipher
Opening the Netherworld and going in.
The Sole One shines, and I go forth among
his multitudes; I walk side by side with them,
namely those who are in sunshine;
I have Opened the Netherworld.
--- an Egyptian coffin inscription
I.A 1500 B.C.
Ancient Egypt
the banks of the Nile, cleansing ceremony
Her-sedjem, blessed woman
wearing lotuses in your sable hair
you have become a hsy,
Immortal and eternally made beautiful.
Chaotic Apophis, your lover,
abandoned you, leaving his serpent-words
to sting; Heh, knowing the infinity of pain,
took comfort upon you and guided your steel
blade; Anukis embraced you in his turbulent
arms and gently drew your blood away.
Horus will cleanse you in a pool of cold water.
Anubis will enwrap you in his best embalming.
Thoth will make clean the fain paths;
Dendwen will make his perfume of what is in you.
Her-sedjem, may your head be raised,
May your brow be made to live,
May you speak for your own body.
II.A 1992 A.D.
United States of America
inside a bathroom
Co c a i ne
1.67 gr ams of
mix ed str ee t s hit
no t Colu m bi an
riot s
in sym p athetic
nerv ous
sy ste m.
Can 't hol d
s t il l
to w rite
t his
tes t a m ent.
Bu t that's
a nexcuse
for c ollapsi ng
a gain st
the whit e
cer ami c ledge
o f th e
bat htub;
the w at er
i s mud dy
-- bur gund y --
l ike
t he Nile
i n
fl oo d
se a son.
II.B East Lansing, Michigan
Two teenage girls were found dead in Lake
Huron yesterday, apparently from a joint
suicide pact. Amber Marie Thompson was
captain of her junior high volleyball
team, a good student, and popular among
her peers. Susannah Lee was often
delinquent at school and liked death
metal and counter-culture. Parents and
friends said they had no idea that such a
tragedy would occur. Journals and
letters found by Amber's parents revealed
a hidden side to their daughter's life.
The successful young girl wrote that she
had found a soulmate in Susannah Lee, one
who could understand all of her problems
-- problems which no one else seemed to
have. Letters from Sue encouraged their
daughter to "leave this meaningless
existence" and accused her of wanting to
back out of the pact, leaving Sue with
an anguished and troubled life.
At three o'clock Friday afternoon, the
two girls convinced a mutual friend to
drive them to a supposed relative's house
near Lake Huron for the weekend. Amber's
parents and friends became concerned
after finding several notes, carefully
typed, explaining how she "hated this
life". Five hours later, police found
the bodies of the two girls, tied by
ropes to metal weights. Both girls were
fourteen years old.
I.B the banks of the Nile, blessing ceremony
Go down and bathe with Ra in the lotus tanks;
don the clean garment of his refuge. May you
be encircled by Orion, by Sothis, by
the Morning Star; may they set with you as
you rest in the arms of your mother Nut; may they
save you from the rage of the dead who go
head-downwards, for you are not among them. You shall
not go down in the butchery of the first of the decade,
those who suffer the lamentations of the West.
And you will be in the waters, alive for
ever and ever.