voladores de papantla

Voladores de Papantla


Veracruz, 1999



At the epicenter of a camphorized pole ascending towards the sky,

four man birds levitated towards the womb of the mother sun.

Their pueblo clay faces shyly greeted the rays-

marked by jagged terrains of age

they allowed themselves to fall,

into their cicada and sunflower colored winged cloaks

their turns like red starburst flames dancing in the wind.

This touch of fire perforating the sky

like moths in a summer night

with silence broken into

by the echoed breaths of a hallow shell,

of the adobe faced man birds inviting the sun

in a low whisper to sleep



wandering into this modern life.