Nefertiti & Other Poetry

By Daniel Leach

Featured in Issue One of New Lyre Magazine

Nefertiti 
By Daniel Leach 

Ah, Nefertiti! I had no idea that you were 
Right here, as I wandered the streets of Berlin, 
And suddenly needing antiquity older than 
Sophie Charlotte, I entered the darkness 
Where you lie there smiling across the millennia. 

And though I’ve seen many a beautiful woman, 
The moment my eyes saw the radiant tone of 
Your skin, like reflections of tropical sunsets, 
I felt as if I had come home to the essence 
Of all that I worship as beauty in Woman; 
The delicate features, but strength from within, 
Those intelligent eyes, full of mysteries hidden, 
And sensuous lips, with a smile so alluring, 
I dream for a moment they whisper close by me— 
I kiss them and drift down that neck for a moment— 
That neck! How it captures my soul so completely! 
I love in a way that on earth is not possible. 
Cruelest of all is that smile to remind me, 
On stone that survives over thousands of years, yet 
What love I have known never lived but a moment. 

In sadness I turn to go back to the daylight, 
But something still grips me, I turn to look back, oh 
I cannot resist you, no matter how painful, 
For better that pain than all possible pleasures. 
I stand for a time as if I were suspended 
Between our two worlds, feeling both of their gravities-- 
Mine, with its pain and its death and its passions, 
And yours which is deathless and pure and serene. 
Though I know I can never approach it in this life, 
It waits somehow both from beyond and within, 
So that I can return to the city and people 
And pass through these hours with the smile of eternity. 

As I walk slowly away, I see standing 
A priest on whose face is a puzzled expression, 
He’s turning around as if struggling against it, 
For one last brief look at that beautiful vision. 

Cornfields 
By Daniel Leach