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Temple of the Seven Dolls
Dzibilchaltum, Yucatan
In steamed oppressive heat and vined morass,
Across subtropic copse of Yucatan,
Parrots whisk in raspy crying pass
Where ruins of an ancient city stand.

In tangled root, the pyramidal shapes
Attest to strength of mythos undisclosed;
Long through the Spanish plunders and the rapes
The Temple of the Seven Dolls imposed.

What ancient Mayan communality,
In leagues of priest and acolytes assigned,
Raised these walls of stone intensity
And habited this corporate place divine?

The Temple stands as monolith symbolic.
Through doorways, priests aligned the rise of night
And foretold fates.  Now, no text historic
Reveals the words, intention, and the might

Of Mayan canon.  In tacit liturgy,
The stones endure.  How are we to grasp
The rites of seeding soil with blood's energy,
Saintly decapitations?  Their primal past

Is not ours.  And dare we tread exhumed
Temple where rituals abstruse were played?
In blood, fertility and prayer assumed
Albic purity.  How can we invade

And understand?  In rainy veil subtropic,
Long before the jungle overran,
Mayan mythos, humic-rich and omnific,
Embraced the earth in citadel of man.

- b g marcot

Notes:  I wrote the above poem in simple 4-line, iambic pentameter verse structure.  I intentially wrote the first 3 verses with strong cesuras (stops, as with commas or periods or other punctuation) at the ends of most lines and at the ends of each verse.  Then, the end of verse 4 runs on into verse 5, to break the rhythm, as verse 5 runs into verse 6, and 6 into 7.  Verse 7 returns to the strong line-end cesura structure to end the piece.
    The background image is from a photo I took at Old Chichen Itza, showing a chieftain with full headdress and garb, with "speech scrolls" eminating from his mouth as symbols of wisdom and authority.  Note the two striking images of the snake heads in the lower left and upper left corners of the panel, and the coiled snake above and to the right of the chieftain's head.

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