Xipe Totec

Nakedness begins and ends with dermis,
a nervous exposure,
and the odor of being bared.

Those senses newly opened
reel with sensation;
flayed palms and
flayed soles
begin to understand the anatomy of sand.

Acute,
soft eyes witness
new smooth selfness
and wonder why
such immediacy
so sweetly terrifies,
why nerves displayed
shrink from the pressures of atmosphere.

Atop a pyramid of skulls,
a mound of still-beating hearts,
comes down the thin lines from flutes, low moaning.


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