The Magician wears a tilma

Abstract

The Magician wears a tilma Michael Vargas (bio) Sometimes I want what Diego had,or at leastwhat all the artists, ethnoarcheologists, and clairvoyantssaida shawl too drab for possessionbut worthless enough to be mistaken as a mediumto distill the holy from the celestialrapturing of petals bloomed with a garb tied to one’s neck like a noose but much like ancient aliensas seen on TVdedicated theories converge at native ineptnessand leave Diego, much like myself, to hang above this hill of violetsand gallica roses peasant boy talks to eagles up on that hill wind-burned vestiges drip organic copper paint off his feathered tail I forget, much like he knew,how to smelt blood into cerulean pastepour every crest of a sepal’s backing into silver and goldmanipulate planetary conjunctionsunder the dim-lit reflection of a moon’s waning nailonly to be discredited as a degenerate renaissance painting We burrow our bodies in a dream’s impasseconstructed of ambiguous cultural remainscapable of withstanding bodily inertialike the serpent returning to dirt [End Page 132] only to rise on the third day,enamored behind stone There is no resounding pontification that can describe our amnesiano canonization supported by a tilma covered in bullet-proof glassno church to pay for your sins by way of a barefooted pilgrimageonly an underground nest, much like a cenote,where snakes with feathers brumate like their warm-blooded siblingsadvised thereafter to show menhow to construct temples and burn theirs down with roses [End Page 133] Michael Vargas MICHAEL VARGAS is a queer Chicano who earned degrees in English and Anthropology as a first-generation college student. He comes from a family of field laborers, mechanics, and blue-collar workers in Southern California, where he still lives and works as a mail carrier and writes poems. My poems document my experience as a queer Chicano, weaving in the stories and histories of my family. I often draw imagery from fairy tales, magic, and mythology because they help transcend a world that is not built to hold individuals like me. Through them, I can explore the ways gender and sexuality conflict with tradition and expectations, linger in moments in my family’s history when individuals weren’t given choices, and rescript their stories to provide new agency. Copyright © 2023 Wayne State University Press