powaqqatsi*

powaq
darkwalker
grass does not grow near his camp
birds do not fly there
he does not eat the grass
has no taste for corn
rabbit meat or venison
but somehow their dying makes him stronger
that means more must wither
die the way his family did
before he knew the truth
vanish like his clan had
when he chose to walk the ghost path

something in him ached
never sated by the brown grass
or the slow deaths of trees
it ached with hunger for all things that die
but especially, obsessively
for that which knows it is dying

oh, what great strength dying humans hold
he kept thinking
until the memory and his madness
drove him to do what he must

with the powaq’s last choice
the darkwalker lost language
coarse hair covered his body
his shape shifted from that of a man
he lost the gift of reason
he became a thing
that ached
that was
that caused
he became a thing of death

po.waq.qatsi (from the Hopi language) , n. 1. sorcerer life, an entity,
a way of life that consumes the life forces of other beings in order to further its own life.

August 31, 2K7
ranchoZenrodeo