"Jaguar Mural" Words & Music by James Nihan In dusty Tetetla Where do I begin? While sipping my water And catching my wind The guard took my money Though I'd already paid I was dying for silence While his radio played I sat before murals That beckoned to me There were eagles and jaguars And shells from the sea But one above all Just swept me away To a time and a place And I heard myself say I am the jaguar The jaguar is me With the eyes of the sun In the dark I can see My body adorned With feathers and jade I had come from the temple Where the elders prayed For my heart to be strong And my mind to be still As I was reborn In the blood that would spill Beyond the last village Beyond all I knew The wilderness waited To see what I'd do Looking back once It seemed in a glance The pyramid hills Were covered with ants I turned to the path And walked from my youth Surrendered myself To this journey of truth Destined to wander Where others had been Where some became spirit And some became men I am the jaguar The jaguar is me With the eyes of the sun In the dark I can see I stood with my brothers Young warriors all At the back of a canon Facing the wall I cast off my quiver And braved without bow The fate I awaited And did not yet know She suddenly leapt A sight to behold This jet-spotted jaguar In yellow and gold I counted the specks Of the dust that she stirred The moment stood still Though she was a blur Standing my ground With obsidian knife This rite of passage Might well mean my life With her breath in my face And her claws in my back I struck at her heart Till her body went slack I am the jaguar The jaguar is me With the eyes of the sun In the dark I can see Placed on a litter They dragged me along While a friend with a flute Lulled me with song On a pole between shoulders The jaguar was hung Whose courage that day Did not go unsung Back at the temple A priest in a mask Turned to the jaguar And finished the task "Blood of my blood" Echoed within As I was enrobed By the sinewy skin In the arms of the ancients Mothers of clay I was carried below From the heat of the day In a shadowy chamber I lay till I healed On a bed of corn husks Fresh from the field I am the jaguar The jaguar is me With the eyes of the sun In the dark I can see Back at Tetetla Before where I sat Sanguineous paint Had honored the cat An artisan's brush Maybe my own Had brought her to life On the old plastered stone I mistook her laugh At the point of my knife For the cry of the wounded Clinging to life Now I understand My eyes open wide How she may have fallen But she never died I am the jaguar The jaguar is me With the eyes of the sun In the dark I can see Published by Composure Music (ASCAP) Copyright 2008