Cold blood,
cold heart lies still
under a shawl pinned tight,
drawn across your chest by your own
warm hand.

Before
the club struck skull
through swinging black hair brushed
over the loomed alpaca on
your back

you pulled
the wool asku
closer around your body
singing songs of an Andes spring
dripping

dropping
into mountain
pools, playing tone games with
plumed cockatoos, imitating
caw-caws.

Sister,
you're theirs - wild winged
iridescence on view,
caged plumage for gaping, uncaged
at last.

"Where Shadows are the Truths"
by Stephanie Law

Author's note: In 1996 a healthy 13 year old Inca girl's remains were found in the Andes mountains, her body and clothing perfectly preserved in ice for 500 years. She had been sacrificed to the mountain god Nevada Ampato.

Bio: Judith Pacht's poetry appears in the Journal of Culture and Food, Gastronomica, University of California Press; in SOLO 6; and in a reading, Site of the City, a postcard competition. Her work has been published in two poetry anthologies and in the literary magazine, Wine, Food & the Arts. She was a columnist for The Southern California Gardener and has published in newspapers nationally.

Contact Judith Pacht at Spondee123@aol.com