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Stanza for Conquistador


There is this essential moment
when the bearers are being herded 
down a narrow dirt road
without shields or macaas—it is 
still happening, hasn't appreciated
in the telling, hasn't been born
but clings wickedly to its own cord,
something wet.  Tlatelolco 
has had both kneecaps blown off
by a harquebusier; beads of rain
glisten on precious leaves above
the Temple; it is not a time or place 
to remember, not ample enough 
for history; it isn't so much before 
Nauhtla clambers up the ziggurat 
to hurl a score of stillborn curses
at the rocks below, or after the glare
from Motecuhzoma, spun hotly
off his litter; it passes instead
somewhere along the in-between,
in someone's apprehension 
of slackness: Cortss is still 
a Sun God, or else he is not, or else 
it isn't going to matter anymore.


 
© Seth Abramson