Hand in Hand/To Tezcatlepoca

by Alice MacDonald Fleming

To Tezcatlepoca

"Soul of the World"

TO God Tezcatlepoca, the "world's soul,"
They offered sacrifices long ago.
One year of all the pleasures man may know
The victim had. Then came the folded scroll,
The world's farewell: the long-expected goal
That block of jasper where they stretched him low,
The flint-edged knife, the measured ripping blow,
The hand that wrenched his heart out through the hole.

My feasting-time is over, and I see
The world receding. Friendship, love, and art,
The singing-women, flowers, revelry,
Have vanished I lie naked, set apart
This is the death-stone. What remains for me?
The grasping fingers that shall tear my heart.