GUEST POET 

KG

Tlaltecuhtli

the serpent gods wore feathers

and tumbled from the dawn,

took me from the waters,

and foot to foot, was drawn.

this, before creation,

with life still being nursed;

before there could be beauty,

they had to kill me first.

now half of me, the earth;

the other turned to sky;

in this end, rebirth;

the rest they left to die.

the serpent gods made flowers;

and of my flesh, the fields;

caves descending from my stare,

and lips the river yields.

but I survived the great divide;

the final battle, won;

escaped the mouth of madness,

and swallowed whole the sun.

the world then dark and chaos;

in dark, the darkness sieved;

that darkness hid the monster;

and in that dark, I lived.

then the serpents folded;

and drew a compromise;

a hundred years be golden;

a hundred human lives.

be calm before the monster;

that is this world, in parts;

the monster will lay sleeping on

its feast of bloody hearts.