{"id":1874,"date":"2023-10-31T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=1874"},"modified":"2024-05-22T14:59:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T18:59:05","slug":"two-by-alejandra-cabezas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=1874","title":{"rendered":"Two by Alejandra Cabezas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Cult of Kukulkan<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Last night I lowered myself into a well. I spent the night in a serpent\u2019s mouth, speaking to a god. Come sunrise, I forgot to ask for his name. I resisted the raindrops in between his teeth. Despite my thirst, I\u2019m wary of drinking from the crevices of men. He was a feathered one, I think. Would\u2019ve expected a pyramid or a son from me. I\u2019d much rather have my gods help me sweep the earth. But no, they hide their demons in the dusty corners of my home. Pull at my skirts and invite me into the underworld, they do. Quake after quake after quake I still dream of Tulum blue. We\u2019re in a generation-long drought, can\u2019t you see? All the fertile women are gone. Died in a battle, they did. Left us the monkey children and took the last of the maize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now give me a god who will tend to my harvest. Give me a god who will patch the tears in my sheets. Give me any god who will not ask me to dance at his behest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe then, this god will be worth remembering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomb Deposit <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nothing feels as empty as the trails of the earth. Where once, me and you, now runs a serpent. Bodied thing I am jealous of. With no arms to reach for you. No legs to keep me put. You see, I love standing on puddles during storms. Then comes the sun and I find myself in a hole. Never had to carve myself out of the present. I stay, always. One day I\u2019ll drown myself. I\u2019ve heard all about this soil and its precariousness. No doubt the terracotta will outlive me. I am porous. Meant for permeability. My output is my weakness. Everything inside me is shriveled up. Old things. Uncared for. Left behind in floods. Found drying in the sand. Nothing has ever restored its composition. Chemistry, I know. Nothing ever dies. But the sun and the salt will eat away at me. You have to believe me. I am withered. Meant to serve in the afterlife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let me tell you a secret:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been to the bowels of the earth,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and there is none. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alejandra Cabezas is a poet and storyteller from Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in <\/em>Pleiades, CURA, 128 Lit, The Beaver Magazine print anthology<\/em>, Moida Magazine, The Literary Bohemian, and elsewhere. She was named Poet of the Month by<\/em> YES Poetry and represented Mount Holyoke at the 2021 Glascock Poetry Contest. She currently resides in Amsterdam, where she works on an MA in Museums and Heritage.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cult of Kukulkan  Last night I lowered myself into a well. I spent the night in a serpent\u2019s mouth, speaking to a god. Come […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2171,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions\/2171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}