oméyotl: Divine Duality
 
             (retrato doble diego y yo / double portrait deigo and I, 1929-1944)

en ocasion del quinceavo aniversario de nuestro matrimonio
on the occasion of our fifteenth wedding anniversary

we are divine
            duality

            ometéotl

            ometecuhtli-omecihuatl
            lord and lady pair

            old princess
            old coyote

            of omeyocán

we are noumena
            phenomena

            the fleshless and the flesh

            the numbers the days
            the close the everywhere
            the red the black

we are celestial body and starry skirt

            rain and waters that flow

            motion and earthquake

            volcano and hearth

we are masked night
we are bearded wind

        the sleep
        the dream

        thirteenth heaven
        ninth hell

we are quetzal plumes and maguey thorns
            obsidian knife and flint butterfly

            endearment and flesh rending claw

we are house of mirrors and double smoking mirror
            the enemy on both sides

in the city of coyotes

in my ripe blue house
you will find us

            old coyote
            old princess

            of coyoacán

in
the gardens

                feasting

                                licking death’s sugared lips
                                sucking life’s sticky fingers
 

Copyright 1998, Mary Hope Whitehead Lee
 
Mary Hope Whitehead Lee has been writing poetry for more than 20 years.  Her work has appeared in Essence, the anthology This Bridge Called My Back, and the literary journals Callaloo and Feminist Studies.  She lives near Portland, Oregon.

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