I walked the steps
where priests, Zapotec kings,
left footprints rituals performed
to invisible gods

Mictlantecuhtli, Mictlantecihuatl
rulers of the underworld
and all living things.
Their energy emanating

through temple stones carved,
shaped vestiges of reverence to nature,
culture found two centuries before
the Spanish arrived

these standing monuments
proof of our undefeated spirit
and struggle Zapotec, Toltec, Olmec,
Mayan, Aztec cultures proof to the world

that our ancestors were intelligent people
knowledgeable, cultured, devout
beings in harmony
with the universe,

life and death.
The sun shines its light upon us
as we follow the moon path
to rivers where we will survive,

we will never perish.

Raúl Sánchez has lived nearly thirty five years in the Pacific Northwest. His inaugural collection "All Our Brown-Skinned Angels" published by MoonPath Press is filled with poems of cultural identity, familial and personal; civil protest, and personal celebration. His book has been nominated for the Washington State Book Award in Poetry for 2013.