Knot
The tongue of the rebel god is in the anaconda,
so says the tribal legend, cut from his mouth
before words that carried secrets
which make gods could rise
to the ears of men. These
silent knots, a latitude of jewels,
are one elaborate thought of death,
made for nothing else but to kill
and sleep their swallowed lumps
to the next hunger. Having said this,
the high priest's own tongue is cut out,
for of such silences is silence made,
and earthworms.
from Sorting Metaphors 1983 (41)
