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God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore cover

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 70: TONATIUH
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About This Book

A sequence of poems evokes dawn through dusk, prairie winds and dust, ritual dances and spirit songs, and mythic reckonings framed as a red apocalypse. Later cycles portray terraced Pueblo landscapes, potters, corn maidens, and ruined pueblos, while final pieces invoke Aztec gods and cosmology. The language is lyrical and imagistic, alternating intimate observation of natural life with ceremonially inflected reflections on death, renewal, and the drumlike rhythms of the earth.

TONATIUH

There is a valorous cry when he mounts with the Morning——
Tonatiuh! Tonatiuh!
Golden plumes shining, emerald plumes shining,
Bannerets of scarlet, and tawny skins of lions,——
There is a valorous cry like the shouting of many armies
When the souls of the Battle-Slain mount with their Chieftain Sun!
At the Place of the Zenith they lay down their arms——
Tonatiuh! Tonatiuh!
At the Place of the Zenith the Warriors are defeated;
From the Place of the Zenith the Sun descends mid wailing.
There is wailing and woe when he descends to the House of Evening——
Alas, for Tonatiuh!
They drag him down—their hair is disheveled with mourning,
Their fingers are many and sharp—they, the Dark Mothers,
Whose breasts are heavy for the children they died in bearing:
Wailing they drag him down, the Vengeful Mothers——
Alas, for Tonatiuh!
Alas, for Tonatiuh!