Aztec, Incan, Mayan
i sacrificed myself -
threw down the gauntlet
of health
and took up my brushes, my
paints, and let me tell you -
i made history!
i drank my own gore
until i tasted death
sweet as the sugar crystal skull
with my name on it
wrapped in a coverlet
of microbe flowers,
entrails funnelling in and out
of my throat.
Listen kid -
i may not get out alive
but in the last blast
of the furnace
they will remember me -
a flame rose
rising
into immortality.
i sacrificed myself -
threw down the gauntlet
of health
and took up my brushes, my
paints, and let me tell you -
i made history!
i drank my own gore
until i tasted death
sweet as the sugar crystal skull
with my name on it
wrapped in a coverlet
of microbe flowers,
entrails funnelling in and out
of my throat.
Listen kid -
i may not get out alive
but in the last blast
of the furnace
they will remember me -
a flame rose
rising
into immortality.
hortensia anderson
