Between where the Tigris and Euphrates
Roll rocks round,
The earliest city centers emerged.
Cuneiform pressed in clay counted coins
Paid for linen, barley, and livestock.
Horned as the heifer of heaven,
Inanna filled the rivers, wells, and springs
With her life blood.
Once she walked down the steps
To the land of the dead and was captured.
Freed by her promise to supply a substitude,
She arrived home and found Damuzi,
Her lover and son left to tend the goats,
Happily claiming her sovereign rule in royal robes.
She sent him to fulfill her promise.
So every year the high priestess chose a new Damuzi
To be her love and shepherd king,
And be ritually sacrificed when rivers ran low.