Hers is a radiance
of luminous compulsion
giving a man
the soul of a poet.

Fifteen years of enchantment
out of twenty-four years of life
could not dim the effulgence
of still beauty
burning
in an immortal candle.

Cradled in reeds,
made son of a princess....
Who could have told
the saga
of this passionate
dispassionate man;
this patient impatient,
modest giant;
Monumental as the Nile
or tablets of stone,
who could fell an Egyptian
flare up at a Pharaoh,
Argue with God?