zapotecs

I would like to be kidnapped by a Zapotec

but am too small to climb the pyramids.

 

Learn to stuff the pavo in Náhuatl; domestication

of the braceleted fertility goddess took centuries.

 

Her tiny Oaxacan sandal is the true-blue

destination of all these raucous pilgrims.

 

The eccentric quiffed hair, the nose plug: this handsome

terracotta dignitary leaves me speechless.

 

Go visit the vampire bat, he’s divine.

Carries our deaths through the endless night.

 

I rasp a stick across a turtle shell; the dark

belongs to me, and the horrible twilit blue.