Relic of the Coiled Dominion

O hallowed relic, wrought of tempered grace,
What nameless artisan first bent thy form
Into this twice-returning, silver hymn?
Five thousand circlings of the patient sun
Have failed to dull thy strangely measured curves,
Nor rust erase the wisdom of thy shape.

From shattered vaults beneath forgotten towers
We drew thee, wrapped in powdered centuries,
Where all around lay tablets void of speech,
Their silent leaves surrendered unto dust,
Yet thou endured, inviolate and whole,
As though preserving mysteries within.

Surely no ornament wert thou alone.
Too stern for beauty's idle vanities,
Too plain for crowns, too perfect for mere trade.
Some holier purpose dwelt within thy frame,
A covenant of metal, looped and sealed,
Whose rite has vanished with its faithful keepers.

Perhaps upon the Feast of Ordered Thought
The priestly caste assembled in white halls,
And each received one sacred clasp of wire,
The sign that all divided things were one;
Or else the monarch bore thee at his breast,
A token none but sovereign hands might touch.

We found thee not in solitude, but near
A thousand fragments marked by ink's faint ghosts,
Each pressed in ordered ranks beyond our ken.
What solemn liturgy these leaves proclaimed
We cannot know; yet thou alone remained,
Their final guardian against oblivion.

Some argue thou wert emblem of the sun,
Returning ever to itself again;
Others, the serpent folded into peace;
While bolder minds discern the cosmic path
By which the wheeling constellations bend
Around the unseen centre of all things.

And I, who brushed the dust from off thy face,
Can offer neither certainty nor proof.
I only know that one forgotten race
Esteemed thee worthy of enduring steel,
Whilst all their monuments dissolved away,
Leaving but thee to testify for them.

Sleep on, enigmatic curve of ancient hands.
Keep still the secret none may now reclaim.
For sometimes all that history preserves
Is not the glory kingdoms hoped to leave,
But one small thing, whose quiet, patient shape
Outlives the names of those who fashioned it.