National Poetry Month : Jenna Jarvis,

Kukulkan take the wheel

there's duplicity in the government

warning against chicken buses

someplace with decommissioned rails only

understated threat of violence

in human roadblocks               mechanical strikes

crowded turnoffs                     equilibrium of nights

collisions likewise

furtive so

                        light

godbombs to wake him

the dogs who bark

roosters holler until

they realize a firecracker

means persistent darkness

otherwise no antimalarial lucidity

just home and luxury a nourishing galaxy

of flakes on an aquarium surface

dusty skinlike

mineral

                        worm meal

                                                bloodmeal & ash

concrete & deliberate

as the descent of the serpent itself

quicksilver eating the world before

reascent or reagent cold

comfort knowing the metal scent is

sebaceous hence our own

                                                fault

           

This poem incorporates text from the WikiTravel Page for Xela, located at http://wikitravel.org/en/Quetzaltenango.

Jenna Jarvis was born in Ottawa and lives in Kaohsiung. Her writing has appeared in Word and Colour, The Salvage, Sea Foam, and other digital and print publications. Her poem "syndical not synecdochal" secured an honourable mention for The Puritan's 2014 Thomas Morton Prize, and she was the winner of the 2012 John Newlove Poetry Award, as well as Carleton University's 2011 George Johnston Poetry Award . Her third chapbook, year of pulses, is forthcoming from above/ground press.