Valley of the Kings

I wandered once where the coyotes bark
Over the empty sand where cities lay;
Their ghosts still glimmer at the close of day
But fade like shadows in the coming dark.
The sky there is - as everywhere is - stark
And gives no favors to the fools who stay.
Those of us passing by, who dare to stray
Into the past, it is content to mark
Forever with the thought of what remains:
The bare silt stain where greenery should be,
Or else the busy engines of mankind,
Now void and mindless. So the landscape drains
The hope and heart from those who desperately
Seek for a wish unknown - and do not find.