Ramses IV
Did that deceased pharaoh see
the afterlife more smellingly
once his mummifiers plucked
both eyeballs from their holes
and replaced them with onions,
a small bulb filling each socket,
his vision layered as he peered
through translucent strata, sight
transformed to scent, everything
he beheld moving him to tears?
Michael McFee has published seventeen books. His tenth full- length collection of poetry, A Long Time to Be Gone (Carnegie Mellon UP), which includes five poems that first appeared in Tar River Poetry, won the 2023 Roanoke-Chowan Award.