Jesuits have left their cliffs of gilded wood; Franciscans stone fronts of rock candy.
*
Pet ferret with velvet collar in Coyoacán. An iguana on a shoulder in Querétaro.
*
A man is walking draped in a carcass. Raw midday delivery from a flatbed.
*
The Colt 45; the Remington; the actual desk at which the death sentence was signed …
*
… the short and narrow painted coffin of Maximilian, scaled to a botched embalming.
*
The saddle-topped stools in the saddle-bar are going nowhere at the cocktail hour.
*
Cornering at altitude in the Sierra Gorda, a recent roadkill of headless wild burro.
*
Standing room only, for a glimpse of the bloodied Christ with a head of human hair.
*
Crutched and legless at the toll-booth, his proffered cup receives a splash of pesos.
*
In its case in Chapultepec the (Madagascan) Emperor scorpion emits a turquoise light.
*
Two night notes on a steam-flute: the camotes vendor on his rounds in Chimalistac.
*
Cupped to drink the light, two hands out from under a rusted Lecumberri prison door.
*
Ice-block on the pavement; jacaranda blossom roadside; sunlight on an electric fence.
*
Yes waking hardly knowing if you’re here or there. Before the place clicks into place.
*
CCTV; barbed wire; armed gatekeeper; Guadalupe in a niche. Someone is at home.
*
A herbal tea, a cigarette butt; signs of the slept-over burglar in the empty apartment.
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