Xochipilli, Mictecacihuatl, and Bird of Paradise Flower
Thomas Hally
Light from the fading Old Sol filters through a Tree of Love,
Calliope Hummingbird flaps while he hovers florets above.
A sweet sense of orchids tempts wise muse to be swayed,
the passion, the lust whence his ancient lineage conveyed.
Heavenly Xochipilli may charm the dark goddess of Mictlán,
in a Domain Below--no place for plant, nor animal, nor man!
Yearned summons of music and poetry doth part god’s felicity,
wisps tiny feathers, supinating Hell’s Empress’s complicity.
It is not after long before Bird of Paradise Flower is ‘yea’ born,
and simply beautiful and hermetic, on Earth’s first gray morn.
He opens to warmed rime, showing an orange-blue-violet bud,
Bird of Paradise Flower hallows hard soil and also bland mud.
Son of an Aztec goddess, he is thus groomed and adorned,
will needs show that this adonis must soon be forewarned?
With colorful plumes like his father and horns like his mother,
it can surely be said he is flora and fauna unlike any other.
Alone and with no aid Paradise Flower is left here so alive,
where he will grow and develop and hence may even survive.
A house infernal with no evil child to make her happy just yet?
Or might be this demonic mother apt surrogate soon beget?
Paradise Flower has no want for companions yet he will see,
so many, and in all their charming wiles and artless duplicity.
He has no need for friendship, but it may come at the morrow,
hard fact is this god of the Earth will feel less joy than sorrow.
Hot air scatters to swift vibrations of Calliope’s beautiful wings.
Does any of this make Paradise Flower sigh in lusty longings?
Could be the wind? Or the noise? Or the sensuous redolence?
Is it safe to assume perchance we will have more of a sense?
With warmth and with wile Calliope tries to persuade his child,
‘I pray ye let Bumble Bee aid in the birth of Lilies so Wild.’
Yet the froward son is now locked closed to his father’s advice,
to the Bird of Paradise Flower, Xochipilli is not always so nice.
Accursed goddess of Mictlan may grieve by herself a great loss,
son of her womb neither bows nor avows to Heaven’s Big Boss.
Which one will Paradise Flower see when his luck strays amiss?
In the deep, dank heat of the night at the edge of the abyss?
Will goddess allow celestial muse of song, flower, and verse?
Her petite hummingbird wants a son with pollen to disperse.
Desolate, dejected Bird of Paradise Flower pales like his skin,
too many days are seen with no brothers, nor sisters, nor kin.
Bird of Paradise Flower deigns sweet nectar to Calliope in flight,
the dash and speed of god Xochipilli is truly a marvelous sight.
O’er Bird of Paradise flower, resolute, moving so still in mid air,
Hummingbird tempts ebon lover by stroking her silken, jet hair.
And now together again stands the god with the dark goddess,
Calliope has two hands frozen and is unable to open her bodice.
Alas it seems hopeless as the night has turned cold and black,
Must Xochipilli forget his sensuous yearnings and hurry back?
‘Sigh’, dolce lament of morning will start a tristful day brief,
Bumble Bee pollinates the Wild Lilies like some damn thief.
Winter has come so Bird of Paradise Flower no longer can stay,
his timely demise is here at the end of the rather short stay.
Birth soon dies, yet under Bliss and in Mictlan eternally repeats,
albeit in the dense cloak of each night under fiery dark sheets.
Sinister loneliness now prevails in the solitude that once was,
but for blest Bird of Paradise Flower this is just a short pause.
