Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney

by Vanessa Proctor

the squeak of footsteps
in an empty hallway

sudden chill
alone in a shadowy room
of coffins and mummies

the curled and blackened hand
donated in a biscuit tin

its beckoning rim
keeper of dark space
Grecian urn

stone Hermes tall and cold
through two millennia

museum exit
following the light into
birdsong