HATSHEPSUT: 







When I was six



my father Thutmose the First  



lifted me up to sit beside him  



on his throne of Amen.  



He said, Flower of Egypt,  



you will be a ruler.







He took me with him on his royal barge  



down the Nile to Memphis, to Sakkara,  



to Giza, to see my kingdom.







He said to the farmers and nobles  



crowding the water steps



This is my goddess daughter Hatshepsut  



who will be crowned with the crown  



of Upper and Lower Egypt



when she becomes a woman.







I knew that Amen-Re, Lord of Thebes, 



King of Karnak, took my father's form 



and came down to my mother, Ahmose, 



as she slept in the beauty of her palace. 



She woke at the fragrance of the god 



and rejoiced at the sight of his beauty, 



and he went into her and his love 



came into her body. And my mother said 



How wonderful to see you face to face, 



your dew is in all my limbs.







And Amen, Lord of the Two Lands, said to her, 



Khnumit-Amon-Hatshepsut is the name of the daughter 



I have planted in your body. She shall be king



in this whole land. My soul is hers,



my crown is hers.



















BIRTH







Khnum the Potter 



father of fathers 



mother of mothers 



molded my body 



out of clay



out of spirit he



made another me 



my ka to stay



on earth when I die: 



she'll slip away, 



unhindered, free, 



while ba the bird 



wing of my soul 



will fly from my tomb 



back to the sky



















HATSHEPSUT:







Before my father came to the throne  



there was chaos in our double kingdom- 



from the Great Green Sea on the north  



to the land of Nubia on our south.







Men without breasts love war.  



They measure their height



by the mountains of severed hands  



piled up, cut from their enemies.







But I saw our land laid out in peace:  



Thebes, the southern city, the horizon of earth  



stretching east to west



and the fecund river cleaving the land



south to north.  



Sun and moon



sail from east to west



across the Nile,



from life to death



and back again.







Symmetry. Order.  



The Nile



floods, recedes, floods.







And over us stretches Nut, 



the goddess who is the sky. 



The sun travels by night 



through her body,



the moon and stars by day. 



Her toes touch the east,



her fingers reach to the west, 



she arches over us,



rainbow mother of night and day.