"Jardin Perfumado/Perfumed Garden," Mary Antonia Wood , 2004. (As seen at Inspirados, the most recent show at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Museum -- not to be missed.)
Someone else’s heart
rests on his stony belly.
In a perpetual sit-up
he has the rock-hard abs of a movie star
or maybe he’s the hermaphrodite
birth-crunching the orchid
that falls into modern hands.
He births twins, actually:
one orchid
one orchid-blooming heart.
The proud Mayan abuelos
lean into the border.
Their love has breasted
the Aztec generation.
From this flowering of culture
we have distilled
the closed-eye passion
and Puritanism of modern love
Clark gabling her neck
her hair falling back in one heavy curl
while on the other side of the world, through time,
green Egyptian men crunch pyramids
and joy passes between continents
like perfume propogates itself
riding
in elevators.
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