The Curse

He opens his eyes, falls in love at first sight With the girl in the doorway What beautiful lines, how full of life After thousands of years what a face to wake up to He holds back a sigh as she touches his arm She dusts off the bed where till now he's been sleeping Under miles of stone, the dried fig of his heart Under scarab and bone starts back to its beating She carries him home in a beautiful boat He watches the sea from a porthole in stowage He can hear all she says as she sits by his bed Then one day his lips answer her in her own language The days quickly pass, he loves making her laugh The first time he moves it's her hair that he touches She asks "Are you cursed?" He says "I think that I'm cured" Then he talks of the Nile and the girls in bull rushes In New York he is laid in a glass-covered case He pretends he is dead, people crowd round to see him But each night she comes round, and the two wander down The halls of the tomb that she calls a museum Often he stops to rest, but then less and less Then it's her that looks tired, staying up asking questions He learns how to read from the papers that she Is writing about him and he makes corrections It's his face on her book and more and more come to look Families from Iowa, upper West-siders Then one day it's too much, he decides to get up And as chaos ensues, he walks outside to find her She's using a cane, and her face looks too pale But she's happy to see him, as they walk he supports her She asks "Are you cursed?" but his answer's obscured In a sandstorm of flashbulbs and rowdy reporters Such reanimation, the two tour the nation He gets out of limos, he meets other women He speaks of her fondly, their nights in the museum But she's just one more rag now he's dragging behind him She stops going out, she just lies there in bed In hotels in whatever towns they are speaking Then her face starts to set and her hands start to fold And one day the dry fig of her heart stops its beating Long ago on the ship, she asked "Why pyramids?" He said "Think of them as an immense invitation" She asks "Are you cursed?" He says "I think that I'm cured" Then he kissed her and hoped that she'd forget that question