Painted red human figures in fluid procession

on serpentine road marked by black footprints –

the way to Flower Mountain.

Lord wearing charcoal face and feline tail

presents blossom vine to scarlet prince

dressed with first green sign and trumpet shell,

followed by sky bearers.

First tree sprouted an arboreal garden,

animal eyes, their foliate cave opening

joined with limestone pendent to light

yellow female offering seeds.

Inside Flower Mountain

avian man oversees the birth place:

infants suspended by their umbilical cords at four corners;

a fountain at cardinal center gushing crimson,

emergent God seed burst open.

Long passage inscribed in numerical succession;

existence, a walkway, set with stone markers, void spaces.

From nothing came first day, Imix, water blossom,

and the days that came after naming life elements,

and an image of this day period ending.

So all the days counted weigh heavy with stature,

will not fall off the edge, not empty out to boundless sky,

lost beyond the stars.

Here is logical sequence, higher order intoned:

As the sun rises to Lord Ahaj  then descends beneath his temple,

luminous night must follow.

In a room made of variant faces

telling time & occasion

young heir, Kan B’ahlam, 

stands on a precious shell pedestal

as god hand unwinds serpent vine

bloomed with maize head

marked female Ix.

He holds blood – letting instrument

to center, Na Te’ K’an, first ripe plant, 

sprouted from a lily head rooted below surface,

takes human symmetry.

Wearing k’an yellow crown,

scarlet feathers, syllable sign la;

leafy arms extend twin heads – facing skyward.

Sun-eyed Kan B’ahlam grown tall

out of a skull mountain cleft

offers mirror image Lord, Ahau,

to Itzam -Ye, first feathered crest

on a totem tree risen from white flower water.

When you truly desire to fly you will know how to

Dressed in cotinga & quetzal feathers, fastened carefully

You begin by painting sky & water

Aquamarine, cobalt, cyan, cerulean

Cut a horizon sharp as an obsidian blade

Color the sun amber with an azure smoldering rim.

Then, when the brush is poised from longing

Sketch the green golden curve of your iridescent wings

Rising an airborne stairway on the back of Ehecatl

Wind as master, you are its exuberant child, lost in azul

While the world sails on over the lazuline edge of your painting.

Inside the maw, two faces

carved deep in stone block

eye riddled by scar tissue

black bead piercing its’ socket.

Struck by lightning – caught

in a leaf of ornate Rio Bec.

eyes turned inward by long dry season

black mask grown over where light empties out

Willing tempests to melt away their enclosure

bring final surrender to the lords of death.

mouth is smudge, incoherent

mouth is cartouche, full of silent vowel

Lady K’abal Xook at a door

opening of her house,

elevated in her image of penance,

drawing a thorn-studded cord

through her tongue, her speech

her secret word, her place of power.

She is the pillar before the waters at Pa’chan.

She is the holy woman at heart center.

She induces the Other in her reflection

who rises from the earth, who makes things sprout,

dressed in signs of dominion.

She submits her blood, her reverent being

to the fiery spear that holds the public vision:

Resurrection engaged to battle.