States of Poetry 2016 QLD Podcast | 'Quetzalcoatl' by Sarah Holland-Batt
In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Sarah Holland-Batt reads her poem 'Quetzalcoatl' which features in the 2016 QLD anthology.
Quetzalcoatl
—for Vera Pavlova, in Mexico City
On the bus to Teotihuacan, we turn
a new god's name on our tongues
like a charm, jagging past
cinderblocked hills
chocked over the motorway,
grey pixels stacked so high they merge
with the smoked white Mexican sky—
then a guitar player in the aisle
begins a song whose only familiar
word is corazon, we move on, billboards
graffitied Narco Estado scream by,
and I think of the jostling in the plaza
last night during the Ayotzinapa strike,
candled light salving poster faces
of the missing, and wonder
whether there is a god
who bothers to bless those who travel
on buses, not only those who scale
blunt steep steps of pyramids
where the world bends to an untenable angle
as if to say, kneel, human,
your heart isn't enough—
give me your life.
Sarah Holland-Batt
'Quetzalcoatl' appears in States of Poetry - QLD. You can learn more about States of Poetry and read the full anthologies here.
Read Sarah Holland-Batt's biography in 'States of Poetry - QLD'