Mummy Eaters

Sherry Shenoda is a Coptic poet and pediatrician, born in Cairo, living near Los Angeles. Working at the intersection of human rights and child health, she serves as a pediatrician in a nonprofit health center. She is the author of The Lightkeeper: A Novel.

“I think of this book as a book of invocations. A shimmering history of histories. A wail in a chorus of wailing and a prayer in a chorus of prayers where time is pleated and beloved people and places who have passed into death are ‘alive, there, through the aperture of grief.’ This book is a prayer for time to ‘settle an aloe on mother’s heart.’ Such poems thrum with the brilliant, meditative attention of someone who learns from every thing. See: ‘Lend me, gazelle, your fleet hooves […] / I seek the Field of Reeds, the blue lotus. / Bring the cobra. I do not fear him.’ There is such deep intelligence, tenderness, and courage everywhere here.”-Aracelis Girmay, author of The Black Maria

• Foreword by Kwame DawesAcknowledgmentsIntroductionSunflowers of Fukushima: InvocationPart IAncestor Opening of the Mouth: A Daughter’s Long WailAftermath: A Mother’s Long WaiMummification: Early LessonsFrom Mummification to the IncarnationDescendant Ponders the Rising Cost of DyingMakeupRace against Time IShabti, Ushabti: “Answerer”Descendant Ponders SpaceAncestor Dreams of the River Nile by a Dark GateKemet, NileDescendants, in Memory of Our Family FarmAncestor Makes a Negative ConfessionEtymologies: GodDescendant Mourns Akhenaten: A Lesser Hymn to One GodApophatic ConfessionTo Become One of the Blessed DeadPart IIQuestionEtymologies: MummyMummy EatersImmigration: “King (Deceased)”Living MummiesA Dealer SitsFlesh TradeDescendants Discuss Motivation, Your HonorDescendants Discuss Literary Merits of Mummy EatingThomas Pettigrew Mansplains MummiesHow to Silence I: British LessonsHow to Silence II: Roman LessonsStolen HourHow to Silence III: Greek LessonsRace against Time IIMummy BrownSupply and DemandPart IIIRace against Time IIIDescendant Talks Suffering with Old AuntiesDescendant Opening of the Eyes: A Daughter’s Long WailDescendant Interrogated about Suffering and AncestryDescendant Addresses French Boy: Skin PoliticsDescendants Offer PrayerEtymologies: Book of the DeadCairo, 1958Descendants Discuss DefinitivesDescendant Names Modern Mummy EatersNumbersHow to Silence: Mathematics EditionTrue MirrorAncestor Calms Descendant’s Fears about Having Children in a World without KemetEl AsarHow to Silence IV: Arabic LessonsOu-ta: How to Speak from SilenceFinal TestLetters for My GrandmothersNotes and References