Ransom for Six Sky

On the day

8 Ben 16 Kayab

Six Sky of Río Azul

was buried.

Most likely during the year 450

Then in the late 20th Century

Looters took

the vessel

from her grave

Now Six Sky sits under a glass display

(anxiously awaiting liberation)

at the Detroit Institute of the Arts.

The looters kept no record,

but the people will always remember

In December 1985

140 small pieces of

gold

jade

obsidian

and

turquoise

were taken from

the National Museum of Anthropology

in Mexico City | Tenochtitlán

the thieves

sent

a message:

these priceless precious stones

are being held for ransom

Now, the Maya Zapatistas are paying the ransom

freeing Indigenous past and present

from the neo-liberal kidnappers, the grave-baron-land-robbers,

the military industrial complex of generals, soldiers, paramilitaries,

police, battalions, secret police, political parties, non-profits, politicians

and toastmasters of capital.

Six Sky

has been

resurrected,

scattered

between Detroit and Tenochtitlán

Seattle, Oakland, Matamoros,

Chicago, Toledo, New York

Organized into a community army

armed with the colors of the earth

their weapons are our ancestors

who have secretly taken over the underworld

putting ski-masks on the sun and moon

Gestating flesh and blood onto the skeletons of our dreamers

.

In the butterfly of our women

flutter two banners, two flags, their lips chanting

we shall dream

we shall win

we shall birth

we shall love

we shall shatter

we shall clench our hearts

we shall cry in community

we shall sing off the face of the enemy

we shall batter the helmeted soldier,

laugh at his bayonet

we shall stop the bullets, the bombs, the fires

And the new people

that Six Sky dreamt

in her deep sleep

in the year 450

emerge, rise, fly, speak with an earthen tongue

when we will swallow the sky

to become pregnant with clouds, rain, butterflies, milpas, babies,

chidlren-ancestors, who slept in our arms

and made thunder rise

from the maize, the frijol, the women, the men,

the elders, the still-born, the invaders, the raptors,

who remembered then:

Six Sky was resurrected in the sixth sun….

[1984-2012, unfinished words of mariposas | c.s]