Tezcatlipoca’s Glory

A poem by Daniel A. Olivas

I made a fool out of you

Back in the bright days

Of the Aztecs and Toltecs.

I made a fool out of you,

And it was easy.

I was a simple god,

Not as wonderful as you,

The great Quetzalcoatl.

¡Ay Dios mío!

You, the sun god, were the greatest!

Long after the Spaniards

Evicted us and brought the Christian

Deities, you were remembered!

Even D. H. Lawrence named

A novel after you: The Plumed Serpent.

Because that is your form,

A horrendous snake

With a head framed in magnificent feathers.

Yet who am I, simple Tezcatlipoca,

As compared to you?

The god of the air!

The pinche goddamned air!

What kind of god is that?

But it was I who shamed you

So that you fled Tenochtitlán,

Our homeland,

In humiliation.

I know you remember the night

I disguised myself

As a great hairy spider and

Offered you your very first taste of pulque

Which (as I’m sure you now know)

Is worse than tequila

Because it sneaks up on your brain

Without warning.

¡Ay!  You got muy borracho!

And you loved that warm feeling

That ran down your throat and into your stomach

And your groin grew hot, too!

What did the great sun god do?

In a drunken heat,

You had your way

With your sister, Quetzalpetlatl!

I watched from behind a cactus

As you ripped her clothes, and you

Moaned an ugly moan, and your sister

Screamed and I laughed!

And in shame, you left your home

And wandered,

Leaving it all to me!

My brilliant plan,

So simple but so effective.

Why you would trust a great

Hairy spider is beyond me.

Perhaps your hubris lulled you

Into a sad belief that no creature

Would dare cause harm to Quetzalcoatl!

I made a fool out of you

Back in the bright days

Of the Aztecs and Toltecs.

I made a fool out of you,

And it was easy.

[“Tezcatlipoca’s Glory” is featured in Daniel A. Olivas’s debut poetry collection, Crossing the Border (Pact Press).]