POEM #1- How to Build a Pyramid

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The Great Pyramid at Giza, Photo by Francesco Gasparetti, found on Wikimedia Commons

 My friend, Mary Lee Hahn, at Year of Reading is once again set to wow the world with her April Poetry offerings. This year, Mary Lee is focusing on "Our Wonderful World" with thirty poems about the wonders of the world. Today's wonder is the Great Pyramid at Giza, the only remaining wonder from the seven original wonders of the world. I'm not promising to keep up with Mary Lee by writing every day (last year it almost killed me!) but I thought I'd at least set sail with her today.

Mary Lee is cross posting her poems at her brand new website, the Poetrepository. Be sure to stop by and check out that gorgeous new site as well.

“How to Build a Pyramid”

So you wish

to link heaven and earth?

First you will need workers,

about one hundred thousand

no, not slaves,

instead use farmers

from the Nile floodplain

the great river

spills its banks

from July to October

and the farmers will be glad

to set stone

in exchange

for sustenance

And then you will need stone

two million

limestone blocks

Five thousand pounds each

extracted from quarries

floated across rivers

dragged over deserts

slid on sledges

up slippery

clay-coated ramps

one stone

set in place

every two minutes

for ten or twenty years

‘til you have

the world’s tallest structure

surely high enough

for the great Khufu

to grab for a little favor

from the gods on high?

© Carol Wilcox, 2014