Nefertiti
By Daniel Leach
Ah, Nefertiti! I had no idea that you were
Right here, as I wandered the streets of Berlin,
And suddenly needing antiquity older than
Sophie Charlotte, I entered the darkness
Where you lie there smiling across the millennia.
And though I’ve seen many a beautiful woman,
The moment my eyes saw the radiant tone of
Your skin, like reflections of tropical sunsets,
I felt as if I had come home to the essence
Of all that I worship as beauty in Woman;
The delicate features, but strength from within,
Those intelligent eyes, full of mysteries hidden,
And sensuous lips, with a smile so alluring,
I dream for a moment they whisper close by me—
I kiss them and drift down that neck for a moment—
That neck! How it captures my soul so completely!
I love in a way that on earth is not possible.
Cruelest of all is that smile to remind me,
On stone that survives over thousands of years, yet
What love I have known never lived but a moment.
In sadness I turn to go back to the daylight,
But something still grips me, I turn to look back, oh
I cannot resist you, no matter how painful,
For better that pain than all possible pleasures.
I stand for a time as if I were suspended
Between our two worlds, feeling both of their gravities--
Mine, with its pain and its death and its passions,
And yours which is deathless and pure and serene.
Though I know I can never approach it in this life,
It waits somehow both from beyond and within,
So that I can return to the city and people
And pass through these hours with the smile of eternity.
As I walk slowly away, I see standing
A priest on whose face is a puzzled expression,
He’s turning around as if struggling against it,
For one last brief look at that beautiful vision.
Daniel Leach is a poet living in Houston, Texas. He has spent much of his life fighting for the ideals of classical culture and poetry. His volumes of poetry, compiling over 20 years of composition are “Voices on the Wind” and “Places the Soul Goes.”
Stayed tuned for our new short story production, “Thutmose the Sculptor”
Adam Sedia transports us back to one of the primordial sources of magic and mystery in the West—Ancient Egypt. Recounting the story of the Ancient Egyptian sculptor behind the famed bust of Nefertiti, “Thutmose the Sculptor” traces the story of Egypt’s rise and fall through its art (featured in New Lyre - Winter 2025/2026)