Pilak

"The two profoundest words there are: remember and her brother forget."

It meant, "The End," the southern
Border of Ptolemaic Egypt.
Seems it could have been more
Welcoming. "Here Egypt begins."

It could have been less ironic,
Given what the Ptolemies
Meant for three thousand years
Of Pharaonic, hieroglyphic reigns.

It could have been left to sink
Under the waters rising behind
The Aswan Dam. All my childhood
I carried around heroic images

From a National Geographic piece
Showing how they rescued it, stone

By stone. I remembered that name,

"Aswan Dam." What memory does

Reminds me of how probability does
Something similar for the unknown,
Measuring out uncertainty, drawing
A line near the dark. That other day,

I had some reason for looking up Isis
At "Philae," Egyptian name, "Pilak,"
Temple rescued from the Aswan
Dam. I had forgotten that. The End.