CORTÉS
Cortés arriving
Bright white skull
Dark hull
Cutting through centuries of death
In the brief lull of some uncertain
Mission
A churning engine of ambition
Scattering the birds
You do not have to speak these words
To understand their meaning
The women’s voices sing your language:
They are keening
The city is alive with music and desire
Rumbling foreigners
Bleed mutinies of firepower
The deities falter and tumble
From their altars
Towers crumble to ash
As the last beating heart
Is sacrificed to time
All the blood
Gold and vision bled from
The ancient incision
This open vein of pain
A human schism that never closes
Fully
It remains
Cortés arriving
Ominous black crow bully
Orchestras of death
Humming through the ocean’s undertow
To land breathless
And march
Across centuries of dust
Harsh boots
Covering the love of what once was
Wild
Beauty
A lost song
Of some forgotten child
Given no choice
But to shatter the bright wind
With her voice
© 2023 Julie Flanders
Photo Credit:
April is Poetry Month Day 21
To learn more and ENTER our 5th annual poetry contest, please click here: https://octoberprojectmusic.com/poetrycontest/
October Process 