Citrus flower hangs heavy in rain-washed air.
Restless parrots argue over palmfruit,
their brilliant green tails flashes against the lapis sky.
Coyolxauhqui’s round white face
watches over all from above the temple.

Xolotl’s blood drips on the parched soil.
He watches each drop fall, his bright star in the west
following the sun toward the ocean.

His vessel heavy, his blade worn,
Xolotl regards the traffic on Alvarado Street.
This blood, this sacrifice
that in Mictlan could raise the dead from their dry bones
here falls lifeless to the pavement
splatters the low and whitewashed wall of cinderblock
between the parking lot and the 99 cent store.

He carries the dead to their eternal home
he guards the sun in its transit of hell each night
and longing for Xochiquetzal ruler of artistry and joy,
the precious pleasure-flower goddess, her headband of green feathers
brilliant in his home’s remembered sunlight,
Xolotl again takes his long blade,
scrapes wash-water from the laundromat window.

1. 
   James 2009 03 13 at 4:12:43 pm

   This is really nice. I love how it ends, what the blade winds up being.

2. 
   Orange 2009 03 13 at 8:55:46 pm

   Have you got any poems about the axolotl? I love me an endangered be-gill’d salamander.

3. 
   Chris Clarke 2009 03 13 at 9:46:13 pm

   In a Yucatecan grottl
   Lives the mighty Axolotl
   Fine-toned skin all pale and mottle
   wears the fearsome Axolotl
   Fearsomer than any bottle-
   driven specter, Axolotl
   brave prehensile-fingered glottal
   gills denote the Axolotl
   salamandrous sideburn wattle
   decorates the Axolotl
   Poets who fear being shot’ll
   spurn rhyming the Axolotl
   but the wise will never coddle
   those who spurn the Axolotl.
   Doling verse with spoon or pottle
   little serves the Axolotl
   Doggerel spun at full throttle
   honors best the Axolotl
   “Never mind the who or what’ll!”
   Shouts the fearsome Axolotl;
   “Cowards, grant me kisses caudal!”
   Dares bravehearted Axolotl.
   In our hearts, the pale and squat’ll
   live forever: Axolotl.

4. 
   Rana Ravens 2009 03 13 at 10:11:50 pm

   *snapping fingers wildly*

5. 
   Rana Ravens 2009 03 13 at 10:15:08 pm

   (That’s even better read aloud… at full trot I’ll / declaim your poem of Axolotl.)

6. 
   Orange 2009 03 13 at 11:44:41 pm

   Ah, that’s the ticket.

7. 
   Dave 2009 03 14 at 11:42:28 am

   I don’t want to slight “Xolotl”—it’s OK, but I LOVE “Axolotl”!

8. 
   nina 2009 03 16 at 9:58:38 am

   I am strangely sad that “Seattle” doesn’t quite work in this rhyme scheme, because I love the thought of a poem about an Axototl that lives in Seattle (or should I say Seatl?).
   And I agree with James about the image of the blade in “Xolotl” - beautifully done.

9. 
   arvind 2009 03 16 at 10:35:30 am

   I tip my hat and lift my bottle
   And drink to the song of Axolotl!
   I bang my drums and don’t care what’ll
   the neighbors think. Hail Axolotl!!