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Laid Upon Their Alters


"Laid Upon Their Alters" 

qhapaq hucha 
it begins at birth
the most precious 
resource of all

we are registered,
audited, one by one
under the rod measured
by lizard rule 

the capacocha 
children of complacency
dumbed down, some
thorns, uppity, removed

heads counted 
to be held high 
as trophies, those played 
and won 

for the greater good

oh yes, 
we belong;
we belong, 
we’ve always belonged,

to the ruling class

sapa inca 
orders sacrifice, daily
all are held up to the Sun
of the others’ huacas,

accountable,
we are ears of corn
sheared and scattered 
kurnels sown to replenish

a new world
fresh crops
laid upon 
their oily alters

falls the empires
one by one 
like conquistadors 
they dissolve us

holy sees parted
red and bleeding
we are all children 
well drugged 

foreplay for prophecies 

all war rooms 
cleanly wiped
disinfected, by fire
baptised deja vu

submerged 
together 
we are something else
to behold 

realm of the four parts

these final moments 
matter

(LadyLabyrinth / 2022)






“With their royalty and focus of worship destroyed, 
the general population readily accepted Spanish rule 
as “what was done.” This created local assistance which, 
along with outside factors, allowed the Spanish 
to completely conquer the region by 1572, 
marking the end of the Inca Empire.“




“This pattern of manipulating a people’s concept 
of ideological power, in conjunction with 
relational and material power, 
is seen throughout history 
and is often a large component 
of the fall of great empires.”




"That’s why the banalities matter. 
When the real issues come up, healthy states, 
the ones capable of handling and minimizing 
everyday dysfunction, have a great deal more capacity 
to respond than those happily waltzing toward their end. 
But by the time the obvious, glaring crisis arrives 
and the true scale of the problem becomes clear, it’s far too late. 
The disaster—a major crisis of political legitimacy, a pandemic, 
a climate catastrophe—doesn’t so much break the system 
as show just how broken the system already was." 

Copyright © Lady Labyrinth

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