Po-ethic inquiry #3: a song of quetzal

There is an ancient prophecy

shared by people of the color of the earth

in different corners of a ripe land

that eagle and condor will soar together in the same sky again

after five hundred years of separation

 

The blue and starry vault will rejoice with this encounter

And clouds will tear up in tears of joy

Greening the desert

And water will run freely in her beds

Making of her flow a tender caress for the earth

Eagle and condor will share lessons

Of healing, remembering and awakening

Sensing their visceral connection

and dismantling the nightmare of a fractured sky

 

but condor and eagle are not alone in the winds

the long mantle of feathers of the quetzal

must also kiss the clouds and celebrate the forest

to facilitate this sacred encounter

 

for the quetzal is in a space of indeterminacy

and cannot be placed in the North or in the South

the quetzal embraces what is ch’ixi

mottled, baroque, strikingly colored,

for she is one with the rainbow

and the rainbow is a reminder of difference in harmony

every color together without melting

or assimilating

or being included

just being

shining with the others

The condor, the quetzal, and the eagle

Dance in the skies the symphony of four hundred feathers

Beating to the sound of stars

Their pedagogy is based on learning to listen

The song that heals

A song composed of many songs,

and none

Because listening truly is to cultivate the capacity

To have the heart open

To sense the truth of turning the heart into a verb

And allow for the medicine that vibrates

To heal our dismemberment

And be able to glimpse the rainbow in the middle of the forest

While walking with a gatoperro

Expand our imagination and sensibilities

To touch a We composed by neither me nor you

Vulnerability brings strength and with this strength

We’ll be able to defeat the isolation of the pain and fear

Let us pause for a second

see the flight of a feathered serpent

and wonder

can we learn to become related again?