I wrote this horror poem back in 2010 when I was doing open mike events and experimenting with my voice. Also known as “La Xtabay,” I had fun putting my own spin upon the legend of the notorious demonic Yucatan temptress. Connected to the Mayan goddess of suicide by hanging, Ixtab, and best recounted in Jesus Azcorra Alejos’ Diez Leyendas Mayas, the myth tells of a raven-haired succubus of the forest luring lovestruck men to their gruesome demise.

Not by best work, but you just know a horror freak like me had a field day playing with such gory lore.

Xtabai

Ray Van Horn, Jr.

she has the electric touch

I can sense the Mestizo conduit

dancing between her fingertips

before they ever stroke my chest

            it’s the nails which stun my skin like cacti pricks     

her hazels are glowing fragments of jasper

overpowering my bland muddies

while the moon illuminates her olive cleavage

asserting her governance

making me feel worthless and disobedient

her breath tastes like anisette

and she whisper-sings the night rhythm

into my craven ears

            I want her as much as I don’t

she spreads her fog of velvety corruption

summoned from Belize afar

I dare to forsake my genteel upbringing

and I ask her to hand me the rose

before I willingly pass La Ceiba towards Hell

the succubus smiles her approval

the chalcedony in her pupils ignite

her fragrance is beyond aura

hair of onyx, pale, loosened robes raping my will to the ether

my throat constricts like a flash of orgasm

her lips never move but I still hear

“about damn time”

as she places the stem in my grasp without thorns

            those come much later

Images courtesy of the public domain