So Let The Messenger Come Down

So let the messenger come down,

To wrestle with the elder son,

Who fasts so that his kin may feast,

On crops that rise from fertile ground.

So let the messenger come by,

To give a new name to the man,

With hunger weak, yet strong in faith.

The spirit comes, he fights, he dies.

So elder son takes the spirit’s form

And strips away his robe of green.

The son removes the cap of plumes,

He buries him deep in soils warm.

So now the cornstalk breaches earth,

As the messenger had told the son,

The hours when he breathed his last.

His death has brought the staple’s birth.