Lost Worlds

snowmelt

from mountain glaciers

blesses

Pachamama’s belly . . .

her rising fever chills me

breathless

at 13,000 feet

I blow softly

across two coca leaves . . . 

the ritual of wishes

twilight

in the Temple of Virgins

on Moon Island—

I leave an offering

of blood-red gladiolus

the Uru people

live on islands made of reeds

cut adrift

I reach for the shore

in this river of stars

~Atlas Poetica 18, July 2014

This tanka sequence grew out of a trip to Peru & Bolivia in October, 2013.