Uxmal.

Cluny, Claude Michel

Uxmal

 The astonishing Maya
 called the starry firmament
 the corn's sacred gold
 scattered by the wind--
 into the green night
 of Uxmal and Chichen Itza--
 to sate the ravenous hunger
 of a false, lifeless god
 arms outstretched in cruciform

 The newborn Void,

 salt and blood strewn over memory.

Translations from the French
By Daniel Simon

Uxmal

 Les Mayas magnifiques
 ont appele les astres
 or sacre du mais
 disperse par le vent
 dans la nuit verte d'Uxmal
 et de Chichen Itza
 pour la faim avide
 d'un faux dieu
 venu mort les bras en croix

 Le Neant venait de naitre

 le set le sang jetes sur la memoire.

* Tulum, Uxmal, and Chichen Itza--all Mayan cities located in the Yucatan Peninsula--are famous for their architectural ruins from the Late and Post Classic periods (700-1200 A.D.). Tikal, another ancient Mayan city in northern Guatemala, thrived from 800 B.C. to 900 A.D. [DS]

Sources: "Colorado" (1989), from Oeuvre poetique, vol. 1 (La Difference, 1991), 60. Copyright [c] 1991 by Editions de la Difference. Extracts from "La Memoire du sel," Autre Sud 26 (Sept. 2004), 22-23. Copyright [c] 2004 by Claude Michel Cluny, Autre Sud, and Editions Autre Temps.