Landfill

In the foreground

around the mound they

were in, there could

be made out bricks and

rubble rubber smaller

mounds:  there were the

low ridges of straight

city walls punctured

every now and then by

even higher mounds that

had been the watchtowers:

wind water sand, thousands

of years of brick quarrying

had combined to obliterate

what was once one of the

Wonders of the World: opulent

cities of the ancient's time

lay for an eternity undisturbed

beneath the dust:  this sense

of emptiness was everywhere,

this sense of desolation was

common, flat bare plains of

wet mud were crisscrossed here

and there by the fabled irrigation

canals now unused.  The very wild-

life that should have flourished

here seemed to have abandoned the

place:  this was a strange, malevolent

corner of the world:  a place where

huge, gigantic temples had been raised

long ago to gods that no one remembered,

palaces built for queens and kings

that vanished without a trace.