Ra’qedyet

An historical poem

“Ra’qedyet, or Râ-Kedet, was the original name of the city of Alexandria on the northern coast of Kemet, before it was renamed by Alexander the Great. Ra'qedyet is believed to have existed about 700 to 1000 years before Alexander even came to that site. The logic now is not that Alexander built his city on the same site as Ra’qedyet, but that he used an already flourishing city and simply expanded upon it!” -- From Ancient Worlds, an online website.

Tell me more…
I want to know…
What came before…
Before Alexander’s hell-bent stamp
Upon cultures already ancient
when his own still cowered in caves
Tell me about it…Tell me more…
Tell me… tell me… tell me, please
Of ancient Ra’qedyet

Like ill-fated Takht-e-jamshid
where Alexander rested his feet…
Yes… he rested his feet…
His feet upon Xerxes’ table.
Fair Parsa’s palace burned to ruin…
it’s native name lost in time…
It’s city recalled forevermore…
by Greek arrogance… Persepolis!

Of all Carians, given up in fear…
Given over by their Queen Ada.
Anatolia laid wide… laid bare
Before Alexander’s gluttonous march…
His stamp left hither and yon…
A people entire… forgotten… gone
Ground ‘neath his inexorable march
His lustful ego used to erase Caria

Histories trampled, societies wasted…
reaching farther, ever further…
veneered by every raped culture,
burying history 'neath his avarice
from Anatolia to the Punjab
where King Purushottama lost…
lost even his name to Alexander…
left a client king named Porus.

Grinding on… grinding down
like so many others…
Anatolia, Achaemenid, Babylonia,
Egypt, Punjab, and more
From Alinda to Babylon, Parsa, to Jhelum
and more and more and ever more.
Never too much… never enough…
Till death at last embraced his lust.

He built his city hailed through th’years…
Crushing… o’erlaying atop Ra’qedyet…
Ra’qedyet from ancient Pharo’s lines…
Lost in Alexandria… stamped out.
All that remains… a sad and silent jumble
Ruins ‘neath ruins ‘neath a briny sea…
At th’Nile’s mouth, it’s fate ’twas sealed
So he might stamp his name ‘cross the world

A mighty nation prospered…
before made a warning for the future…
Now sad and silent jumbled ruins.
In the ruins of ancient Alexandria
lay ruins yet much older still
‘Neath th’magnificent capital of Ptolemy,
Alexandria app Aegyptum… Alexandria Beside Egypt.
It’s birth razing Ra’qedyet’s life…
That long before haven of sailors.

Tell me of the histories lost…
Tell me the stories of “the Great”
How his exploits are to be lauded,
ever to be praised and applauded…
Of the lessons we should learn…
the warfare that should burn.
Tell me of the histories lost…
lost in th’onslaught of Alexander…
Lost when he put them to the death.

Tell me more…
I want to know…
What came before…
Before Alexander’s hell-bent stamp
Upon cultures already ancient
when his own still cowered in caves
Tell me about it…Tell me more…
Tell me… tell me… tell me, please
Of ancient Ra’qedyet

Tell me the glories of Alexander
of his “Great” folly of death and debt.

Ra’qedyet -- A Poem of Alexander the Great, Alexandria, Alexandria app Aegyptum, Alinda, Anotolia, Caria, Jhelum, Kemet, Parsa, Persepolis, Porus, Purushottama, Queen Ada, Râ-Kedet, Ra’qedyet, Rakotis, Takht-e-jamshid, Xerxes

©25 September 2014
D. Denise Dianaty