Set by Kathleen Calby
Set kills and dismembers his brother Osiris for
leeping with Nephthys his wife. He was the god of
chaos, storms and violence.
Shade of gleaming Osiris. Does anyone condemn
me for my jealousy or just the act? I was made the god
of evil and noir—the darkness all know but can’t
or won’t voice—the trap just over there or maybe
more obvious than that. Yes, I thought myself as good
as he was. Then, he took my wife to bed. My pride
any more than Lucifer’s? To be a god’s equal, then eternally
not. And make his gloss seem even brighter? What hell
this reign of serial killers, tyrants, pedophiles, husband
brutes? Why not be named god of war? Battlefield
slaying sharp as any other. Heroic glamor? Some
myth there to unearth. Shrieks, guts gushing from
open bellies, heads blown off. What of my knife play?
Any worse? All the pieces found but one, anyway.
Bio
Kathleen Calby lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains and hosts bi-weekly writer events for the North Carolina Writers Network. A Rash Poetry Award Finalist in 2022, she published her chapbook Flirting with Owls with Kelsay Books in 2023. Her poems appear in Connecticut Review, Slippery Elm Literary Journal, and New Plains Review, and other journals.
Author's note
A journey I took to Egypt had a profound effect on me, and I’m working on a full-length poetry manuscript that includes the gods, temples, pyramids and my experiences. Growing up in the Catholic tradition, its iconography and stories were very familiar. As a teenager, I discovered Greek and Roman mythology. So I was thrilled to learn the Egyptian pantheon, and I want to make it more widely known.
Set is generally demonized because he kills his brother, the golden boy Osiris. (Sound like Cain and Abel?) But I wanted to take his perspective. He does get carried away in the slaying—chopping Osiris into pieces and hiding them. However, Nepthys feels widow Isis’s grief and helps her find the pieces and assemble them. As a result, Osiris rises from the dead (and doesn’t take revenge on anyone).
