Nothing
more than curious instantaneous images
by George Glasser
Captured
crystal desert visions
Smoking that curious Zapotec mixture
Someplace – somewhere - The Valley of Oaxaca
Yagul - Zaachila - Zapotec ruins?
Seemed early fall arrived on Oaxacan day fading into dusk
Ubiquitous Mescalito meandering through past civilizations
He
speaks in fleeting images without words
Night
lingered-on in fire’s flickered light
Illuminated crumbling and faded phonetic imagery
Clinging stucco crumbling on crumbling ruin walls
Some where - a dimension or so away on down that highway
So far away from yesterday – a short memory distance from today
Between here and there distant valleys, deep in dreams
There where the past dissolves into the future
Cast firmly in cryptic meanings
Omens whispered on desert wind
Coyote howls - That ragged shape shifter
That shadowy drifter - That dusty trickster
That illusive shadow traversing the distance between dusk and dawn
Speaking only in dreams - dreams of visions to come
Smoking
that curious Zapotec mixture
Somewhere in Oaxaca hidden from prying tourist's eyes
Ayauhteotl ("goddess of mist and haze) obscures morning's mountain views
Huitzilopochtli (“sun god”) rises high
Vanquished dawn’s crepuscular rays into burning noon
And then falls slowly from the sky
There in mystic twilight
Amber dusk greets evening's indigo inquisition
Coyolxauhqui ("golden bells") tossed her starry shroud
The moon - patroness of the starry night sky
Night
falls - Cold desert night - Crystal sky
Dark-eyed natives - Mixteca Alta - The Cloud People
Zapoteca Alta laugh and welcome night
Illuminated in fire’s flickered light
Intermittent - crackling embers exploded
Skyward sparkled forth in starry shower
Dissolved then into Milky-way
Rafael laughed, passed the pipe, and said:
“It’s just a stone’s throw away from yesterday”
Desert
night - Desert night calls - night animals speak in animal calls
Nocturnal spirits so near - in between night and day
Just beyond hemispheric fire’s flickered light
Off in desert darkness - a world away
Somewhere there in night - just beyond the fire’s flickered light
I thought “Ah, yes: It all must be due
Yes: It all must be due
To that curious Zapotec mixture
Rafael sprinkles into long stemmed clay pipe
It must be that curious mixture
That
cause my thoughts to collapse and drift off into the night”
Curious
flickering images
Cast in that hemisphere of fire’s flickered light
Illusive phonetic images dancing midst shadows
Somewhere between there and morning’s light
Past glory reflected, danced in natives’ eyes
Midst ruins' crumbling walls
There trying grasp illusive meanings
Fluttering off, dissolving-on into the night
Those curious images - phonetic images
Shadows dancing across crumbling walls
There sat in silent discussions of civilizations past
Evaporating into shadows – then vanish into inky distance
Reaching dawn in less than a thought
Distant memories so close - just beyond grasp
Crystal desert night drifting toward a distant dawn
Coyote
calls and speaks of cryptic dreams of dreams
In visions of dreams of things to come
Visions in visions of things to come
Dreams of visions past where today converges with tomorrow
Chaotically bouncing through time
Then smiling - "Ah" Rafael says, "the Trickster is out and
about"
All while we sat - patiently listening - eyes peeled
Waiting for another vision to arrive
Waiting for Rafael to light and pass the pipe
There just beyond the hemisphere of fire’s flickered light
The trickster lurked casting spells
Somewhere in desert’s moonless night
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