A New Life

If I could bring back the dead
who would it be, and would they agree
maybe they were resting comfortably
unlike me, in my mummified world.

I wonder if *Osiris made a choice
said, hmmm not sure about this one
maybe it was he that cut me into
fourteen pieces, oh well I’m in a good mood
let him in.

The dead, there’re a funny lot
always got so much to say
talk so loud about what they’ve done
where they’ve been, their favourite music
their favourite wine, and they’re always on about
their complaints, Alzheimer’s, gastritis, ulcers
and of course schistosomiasis.

But what if I could bring back the dead
they could see the changes, to see what we’ve done
and feel the connections to what we’d become
but I think they might be a little bitter and twisted
when they find out that death still existed.

Robert Kennedy

- after the Egyptian, Book of the Dead.

*Osiris, the god of rebirth