Alien in Pharaoh's Tomb

JOSE GERVIC LABE, JR.

The Valley of Kings sleeps ‘neath desert sun,
Whispers of pharaohs, their glories long done.
Yet legend calls out, of the boy king enshrined,
Tutankhamun's treasures, for mortals to find.

Howard Carter, by moonlight he labors and dreams,
Of gold and of lapis, their sun-kissed gleams.
But his chisel strikes stone, and a pathway does yield,
Not to riches foretold, but secrets concealed.

No sand-laden breeze stirs the stale, heavy air,
No scent of embalming or offerings so fair,
But the tang of cold metal, a glimmer so strange,
Where ancient and future converge and rearrange.

Not linen-wrapped pharaoh adorned and serene,
But a sarcophagus fashioned, it seems, by machine.
Smooth, alien curves, where starlight might trace,
Hieroglyphs twisted to symbols of space.

A hush falls upon them, no words dare they speak,
As they open the vessel, with hands frail and weak.
No crown made of gold upon shriveled remains,
But a figure unearthly, where cosmos still stains.

Eyes wide, not in death, but in star-slumber deep,
Secrets unfurling where galaxies creep.
Skin kissed by nebulae, in patterns sublime,
A child of the void, untouched by our time.

Hands curled close, as though pleading in dreams,
For a home far beyond our mere planet it seems.
Did it fall from the heavens, a star gone astray?
Or did ancient Egyptians witness its way?

Perhaps on their chariots, they saw lights descend,
And built pyramids grand, their awe to extend.
Did earthly kings see in this child of the skies,
Their own link to gods, with star-painted eyes?

Tutankhamun's mask stares with wonder anew,
His tomb not a haven, but a cosmic breakthrough.
No longer of Egypt, a story so bold,
But of planets uncountable, stories untold.

Where Pharaohs once walked, let scholars take heed,
Of truths long forgotten, whispered star-seed.
The boy king is witness, his legacy wide,
To a universe grander, with secrets inside.

LINE COUNT: 40 Lines
WRITTEN FOR: "

WINNER and NEW PROMPT - Due Friday, Feb 16"

PROMPT:

On Feb 16, 1923, after more than a year of careful excavation, archaeologist Howard Carter unsealed and entered the final room - the burial chamber - of pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb.

That tomb is famous for the fabulous treasures it contained - yet "King Tut's" tomb was actually one of the smallest and poorest of the ancient burial sites ... his burial was done hastily, and in an out-of-the way spot. (This for complicated dynastic and religious and political reasons I leave it to the reader to discover for him or herself.) It was this very obscurity that allowed it to survive unmolested for over 3300 years.

For tomorrow, write a story or poem about an alternate history, in which something entirely unexpected is found inside when that burial chamber is opened.

Genre and subject up to you -- could be horror (a vampire?) or sci-fi (aliens?) or satire (a Starbuck's?) or mystery (the body of a missing Egyptologist) etc.

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