Photo by Colin Watts on Unsplash
Jackal
He was made to live on the borders of
life and death, on the margins of more
powerful predators, lurking
to tempt fate and steal scraps.
Ever the crafty devil,
his ancestors scavenged
commoner corpses,
provoking ancient Egyptians to create
Anubis, a god in his image, patrolling
the border between
the living and the dead.
But the jackal’s ancestry
was far too strong, too cunning,
outliving a civilization of
primitive wonders along with
Anubis’ relevancy,
and eventually,
even the old male lion
who repeatedly chases him from
a fresh kill, threatening him with
certain death, for
the shadow of death
means little more than looming
specter of life to
Anubis, the lowly Jackal,
made death-god by man.
***
Written for dVerse Poetics: On Myths & Legends, hosted by anmol(alias HA). Read other poet’s contributions here.
Also written for NaPoWriMo’s day 23 prompt: “write a poem about an animal”.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m running out of gas. I still welcome the challenge, but I’m practically limping to the barn these days.
Hephaestus’ Waste & Cosmic Rubble 
Your poetry isn’t showing fatigue. Anubis’ origin is something never considered before. I did an A2Z today on Uraeus, which is the snake poised to strike in Egyptian mythology. They worshiped snakes I’m sure because they ate the rodents who threatened their crops. I’m thinking about what we worship in the US and why… About the prompts, keep the music pumping for energy and you’ll be fine 🙂
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I really enjoyed this take on the jackal mythology with a historical perspective mired in nature and zoology. Anubis has always been one of my favourite mythical gods/entities; so it was great to read this.
This is spot on: “for/the shadow of death/means little more than looming/specter of life to/Anubis”.
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Brilliantly done. The connection between the animal and the god, flawless. Bravo!
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How interesting here.. there is something so special about the cunning jackal … I recognize this in the tales of the fox, or the native Indian’s tale of Coyote… there is something universal here (maybe a bridge between humane and divine)
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Raw and mystical at the same time. I love it.
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