Scent of the Jaguar

A low vibration from out of the dark.

A gruff hoarse rumble.

A guttural war-cry

Rising to crescendo.

A coughing grunt

That bristles the trees.

Under the hunter’s moon.

There is something out there. In here.

Secret brother,stay alive!


Mists cling to the forest canopy,

Incandescent in the moonlight,

And a chacalaca calls.

In a limestone hill cave

Chac is carved on the wall,

With erect penis

And extended tongue,

Patron of the blood-letter,

The willing sacrifice.

Soft rumours of running water

Whisper off the walls,

Hushed voices from the underworld.


In a bag of jaguar leather

The shaman stores his medicine;

Tonight he will paint himself

Like the jaguar,

Prowl, climb, swim, stalk and kill

While the jungle holds its breath.


Here is a ceramic pot

Shaped like a jaguar’s head

With the mouth emitting

An ecstatic howl;

Once it was used

To administer psychotropic enemas

To shamans and kings.


Mesmeric stare

Dispassionate and all-powerful

And that ominous odour,

Lithe rippling burnished gold

Splotched and flecked

With dark code,

It steals in and out

Of this world.

It snaps vertebrae,

Crumples skulls,

Crushes windpipes,

Strips bodies to the bone.


Were-jaguars, the Olmecs,

Deforming their heads

To emulate the great cat’s skull...

See the serpentine mosaics at La Venta,

Depicting ferocious jaguars,

The colossal basalt jaguar heads

And the jaguar altars close by...

The Olmec kings were descended

From the union of human women

And male jaguars,

Babyfaced and snarling,

Clawed and fanged for victory,

Dream-princes of the night.


The Jaguar Knights are dancing

With shields and clubs,

The warriors of the Maya,the Inca,the Aztecs,

Roaring,hissing,growling,

Swallowing the night-beast’s supremacy,

To hold the world under their claws

And suffer no enemies.


The jaguar stalks the stars

Above Copán,

Escorting the sun to dawn;

The god-cat’s moon eyes

Follow the action

On the ball court;

Soon rich blood will be drawn.