yellow talons searing and
dismembering the flesh of a
body laying face down in a coffin,
what was once a man,
his body was often used for sacrifice
but he survived multiple times, continued “alive”
searching for his spine, in a large reddened tub
built from barks of amazonian trees,
they were to hold his spirit contained,
others buzzing like frantic bumblebees,
he would bob his head into the blood inside,
and outside to air, he’d spit his findings
nerves compressed his teeth, jerked his muscles,
so that they ripped into his bones, burst crown moldings.
they would crack so much louder in his skull
than to the watchers ears, who mimicked in careful resonance,
building to a climax of youthful gestures of
barebacked intimacy, and screaming
down the ancient stone streets,
fucking screaming.