Incantations: Songs, Spells and Images by Mayan Women

Photo by William Rios

The Xpakinté

 

The Xpakinté is not really a person,

although she looks like a woman.

She lives in the fog beneath the tall oaks,

under branches hung with lichens and moss.

 

The Xpakinté appears in the night

when the drunks are stumbling home.

They see the face of their wives

on the Xpakinté.

She wears pretty red pompons in her braids,

just like a wife.

 

It’s late, says the Xpakinté.

Let’s go home, honey.

 

She leads the drunk off down a shortcut.

He follows along blindly until he realizes

He’s lost in the thick brush.

The Xpakinté takes off her clothes.

He embraces her.

She turns into a hollow tree

full of hairy caterpillars that sting like fire.

 

The Xpakinté is not a person,

but she looks like a woman

when our men are drunk in the woods

near the fog bank

where the oaks grow tall

 

-Munda Tostón

(Taken from the book, Incantations: Songs, Spells and Images by Mayan Women)