A prayer to Saint Kathérine of Alexandria
Saint Kathérine, please keep safe your homeland
For all of us, and from our worst impulse
For we are weak as a race, stay our hand
So that we do not destroy in a pulse –
…of anger, that which forty centuries –
…of sand and time preserved for the whole world
For when pushed – we men become as furies
But when rage wastes, tears from acts flow unfurled…
For when Egypt burns, the whole of Earth mourns
She is our cradle, her lament – our thorns
For when the Nile is in pain drenched in blood
We turn to the sky, watch the tears of God
The black soil of the greatest of all lands
Has seen enough carnage, it needs love’s hands…
Saint Kathérine, martyred virgin, hear us
We watch the land of the pyramids blaze
Powerless to stop the destruction mass
As Seth spreads his ire-dark malignant ways
Bloodletting the land we share in common
Killing the children who guard memory
In the house of the Sphinx and of Ammon
Kathérine, the Pharos ask you: hurry.
Of Ancient Alexandria Kathérine
Saint of the broken wheel, of the unseen
Hold us back from ourselves, save your nation
Tame the hearts on fire with Nile’s tears elation
You alone can keep sands of hate at bay
Saint Kathérine, to you I plead today…
January 30, 2011 – Konrad Tademar
