Intercalary Day #5

Nepthys:
There are no cheap resin statues of her.
Last year I was so urgent when I found the other
Four children of Nut and Geb at
Talaria Enterprises,
I tried to place a rush order.
Museum replicas,
They were powdered stone mixed with resin
For a pleasant weight and feel.
I was at a loss for an icon of Nepthys.
I used the
Head of a Greek woman in sandstone
For a candle-holder.

I layered dried leaves of
Fragrant pitcher sage
On the altar.
I lit the gummy rose incense from the
Greek monastery - Byzantium,
I believe it was,
And put out a little plate
Piled high with the
Pear-shaped tomatoes
From our garden.

It is now some weeks from this day
And I remember only the
Blur of activity from the
Morning’s ritual to the
Evening’s romance.
Tonight it chanced that someone
Raised the specter of an Iris perfume,
And that more than anything describes the
Shape of her face.

Nepthys,
Lady of the Temple Enclosure,
Is a vaporous shade of a Goddess.
I see her as a fading powder-blue
Visible against the night with her orange
Kite eye.
Once I tore white linen into long, jagged strips
And painted each one gray
For the grave cerements, her hair.
I coated them with glue so they would
Rustle and rasp on my
Devotional mask.

In 1912, Jacques Guerlain made a perfume called
Blue Hour, Iris the dominant note.
It’s the smell of melancholy, longing, and regret.
Nepthys, the shadow of her more popular
Solar sister.
Nepthys filled with regret for her
Betrayal of Isis.
Nepthys, friend of the dead,
Sweet with the melancholy of the embalming room and
Longing for life beyond the underworld.

Blue Hour is very elegant and very somber.
Legions of Iris fragrances follow in its footsteps.
Irisqué, a recent creation by a small indie house,
Does not.
It is five types of Iris and Orris blended bewilderingly with
Carrot seed and Ambrette for a
Root-forward-effect.
It breaks the Iris mold.
It has the scent of a bulb freshly ripped from the ground,
The wet soil clinging and tumaceous.
I haven’t known how to appreciate it.
Now I do.

Nepthys, the twilight-blue solemnity of
Blended Iris notes,
Hidden goddess,
An elusive, fleeting mood.
Nepthys, musty dirt and sweet rot,
Goddess of the charnel house,
The earth that recycles us all.