her carved temple doors are wadded shut
in the Peruvian cloud forests
where the mountain gods speak

outside, the golden jaguar, aroused and swollen,
leaps down from sponge-mossed logs
and prowls with swashing tail

she sinks into the courtyard lotus pond
while psychedelic blue morpho’s, iridescent under Inti,
flutter soft messages in her ears

morning-time she sends out the scent bees
euglossines to garner mystic fragrances
from the pink-speckled orchids

thrumming Loddigesia hummingbirds
pinsuck the red-flowering lilies,
clapping their gaudy tail paddles

soaring on shredded wing tips
Kuntur watches the cupped hands
create world destiny

by night shrouded in the shadows
of Killa the geckoes cough
to her quenching

Pachamama heaves, the temple gate cracks open
and the jaguar pads in, eyes lava-red,
as she cradles the natemä bowl

they sip – and the tree fungi
fluoresce like
coral under black light

they sip – and the lily ponds
spray sequined fish that writhe
as they tumble back to water

they sip – and rainbow fountains gush
from incandescent candelabra,
shattering diamonds on paving

each shimmering with the spirit of the divine
bodies vibrating with electric-laced touch,
they fuse in violent conflagration

she-shaman-jaguar
drawing out tsentsak
from all the flesh of the world

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Inti – Sun
Kuntur – Condor
Killa – Moon
Pachamama – Mother Earth
natemä – mind altering drug
tsentsak – poison darts