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

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 71: XIUHTECUTLI
By Hartley Burr Alexander
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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.

XIUHTECUTLI

Lord Fire!
Thou who art the Central Burning,
Who art armed with a spear-thrower,
Who art armed with many spears——
The Gaping Jaws of Earth are beneath thee,
Whereof the teeth are obsidian blades,
Whereof the maw is Mictlan,
Whereof the belly is the House of Bones....
Lord Fire!
Thou dost give a little light,
Thou dost give a little warmth,
With thy spears thou dost give a little defense
Against the day and the hour when I must descend....
I will make thee an offering of blood,
I will make thee an offering of a man’s heart——
My heart I will give thee,
That thou mayest burn a little longer,
That the Jaws close not so soon upon me....
Lord Fire! Lord Fire!

The End