Tulum

White limestone sand cools my tired feet
the water a bright sapphire blue
Above the cliffs a temple lies
Like a great grey diamond half unearthed.
~~~
Cold broken fragments of thunder-cloud
the stones trimmed in milky pink
Iguanas hiding chameleon-like
their skin the colour of your mossy walls.
~~~
How beautiful and yet how morbid too
the history a crimson flow
How many died for the harvest fest?
Warm blood the barter of your amber yield.
~~~
Quetzacotl - the great feathered boa
and a thousand other nameless gods
Pierce your flesh with obsidian daggers
A prayer of corn was their hollow lie.
~~~
Would you drain the dark pool in your hunger?
What fine fools that you were
The yellow cheese-wheel at its depths
Is only a reflection of the waning moon.


Kiyotei
Oct 93