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.
