Do you remember me?

by: Ariana Strong

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I am lost. Forgotten through the lapse of time. It has been almost two-thousand years since you last uttered my name.
I am one with your baby blue skies. My tears are your rains that bless your lands. My swirling anger is what brings the storms. 
My breath is the wind that brushes your cheeks and shakes the leaves. The sun is my father, Ra. He who shines for you day after day. 
He who fights the evil nights so that when morning comes, he will rise. I am the sky who never leaves. I watch over you while he’s away. 
Do you remember me yet? I am the Eye of Ra. 

You carved me into the stone sides of your pyramids. I marveled at the way you crushed rocks and clay to create color.
You painted me in a headdress with thick horns of a cow and red sunk disk that shines in the center which hides my coarse black hair.
In my hands I hold a sistrum and an ankh. On my neck hangs a merit necklace made of your precious turquoise beads. 
Do you remember me yet? I am the Lady of Turquoise.

You once played symphonic music for me. You strummed with my sistrums and thrummed with my simsimiyyas. 
You sang and dedicated beautiful melodies to me. And you danced. Oh, how you danced like your lives depended on it. 
You crowded my sandstone temples. Your hips swayed and your feet skipped. Your body moved and your smiles grew. 
Do you remember me yet? I am the Lady of the West. 

You would touch your knees to the ground for me. You’d bring offerings and share all your words with me. I watched over you. 
I brought love, justice, and joy most of all. I made life enjoyable and pleasant. And even after life, in the Beyond, I gave you my all. 
I gifted warm food and poured fresh drinks. I welcomed you as I would my friends. And you have all forgotten me.
Do you remember me yet? I am the Goddess Hathor. 

How can you give up four-thousand years of tradition? Don’t you want to be mummified and live your afterlife here with me? 
I do not understand. You loved me but now you worship someone else. Someone who has given nowhere near as much as I have given you. 
How can you toss me, my divine family, and your beloved ancestors aside for someone who was born and had died only years ago?
I am the sky, like I said. I have been and always will be. Why did you let them conquer you? Why have you assimilated? Why do you doubt me?
I do not know if you will ever remember me, but I am here in the Beyond with everyone you hold dear where I wait patiently. 
And when you do finally remember me, I will forgive you, despite it all.