You may have doubts,
be persistent,
yet Nefertiti
was existent.
She lived a long, long time ago
with an Egyptian pharaoh,
she slept with him, he loved her beastly,
but she, in fact, belonged to history.
He suffered from the wretched feeling
that his possessing her was seeming.
He had
bombastic, pompous features
and made
incriminating speeches.
He thought of his imperial duty,
but Avicenna once asserted
that in the face of genuine beauty
a ruler's power is imperfect.
It made the pharaoh feel inferior...
at dinner
he would look austere;
thinking about it he'd frown
and throw the crumpled napkin down.
He had an army, troops and chariots,
while she had eyes and long black eyelids,
a starlit forehead, nice as heck
and an amazing curve of neck.
And when they floated in procession
the onlookers' all attention
was focused, which they were aware of,
on Nefertiti, not the pharaoh.
When he caressed her he was moody,
at times he'd treat her rather rudely
for he was conscious of fragility
of power, beside her femininity.
Meanwhile
the sphinxes
slowly faded,
beliefs were horribly collated,
but through events and through ideas
through all
that had deceived the ages
her neck stretched out, it appears,
until it's reached the present stages.
We see her
in a schoolboy's drawing
and on a broach on women's clothing.
She frees some women from foreboding,
she's always fresh,
and never boring.
And, like before, some feel inferior
beside the grace of her exterior.
We fuss about, full of care...
While Nefertity...
Well, she's there:
through cares, faces,
and whatever,
she stretches out her neck, as ever.
You may have doubts,
be persistent,
yet Nefertiti
is existent.
Eugeny Evtushenko
https://www.etsy.com/listing/167046024/vintage-2-roses-and-1-button-fabric?ref=shop_home_active
