Summit of No Descent
Jolted awake by the crackling flame
In a shivering delirium
Gazing toward the bedside breathing again
Still imprisoned within the cycle of grief
Weeping apologies give way to clarity
As he starts to recall his unconscious sight
He finds duality
Of the whispered name
The Maize God and the peak
Purpose floods back to his life
Seeking origin of the spectral voice
Meditating on the otherworldly beckoning
He sets for Sacatepaquez
Night by night following the dreams and drones
Sending vivid guidance to his mind
Each morning with burning ears ringing clear
Empty of his kin's lament grabbing roots to scale the earth
The atmosphere begins to thin
Pressure growing behind his eyes
Reveries obscure inner cognizance
The visions augment deep senses of dread
Ambivalent pilgrimage
Recalling where he plunged his sorrows
A black sun looms over those waves
Volcanic heaps pile skyward
A tree of beheadings at it's crest
Chants rumble beneath the stirring currents
Hun-Kame, Hun-Kame
He focuses his eyes
Remembering where he stands
Returning to reality
On this mountain
Squinting eyes through the blistering winds
The sky is clearing and the ocean is gone
Hallucinations fade
Exhaustion surmounting
Clawing higher through the gravel
Breath is fleeting
The summit shows itself through his blurring sight
Hooded figures loom his conscience giving way