PUMA

Cat-child of Pacha Mama (Mother Earth)
With claws of stone
You slink through unconquerable mountains.

With one terrible glance
You scatter the invading clouds.

Your great tail lashes the mountain
So fiercely,
You wound even the Sun.

Thorny-whiskers braid your tongue of fire
Lapping the blood of Inca's
Who worshipped your hungry breast.

Now starving,
An ancestor's chant brings earthquakes
And I.

So I come to you to offer my own Heart!

Puma, cat-child of Pacha Mama
Throw yourself down on my heaving chest
Crush all my empty sorrows
Bury your fierce teeth into my retreating fears
Swallow all my corralled nightmares
With every lap of frozen blood.

Then bundle me up,
In your rock-scratching arms,
And return to your thousand-year sleep.

-George@Aguilar.com, Cuzco Peru  2001