The Celts used red nail polish

So say some books I've read—

Amazing how we know the dead

So well

But cannot understand the living

And so we die, unforgiving.

Egyptians used to bathe all day

This is what I've heard—

They wrote their Book with a thousand words

So well…

They wrote a Book of blood

Just as the Celts painted their nails red.

Perhaps they knew one another once.

Two societies, one very alive, one ready for death—

They spoke to the gods with every breath

So well…

So say the books I read of them

Written in ink, of gods and men.