ALVARADO
Well, now we’ve a translator, we can hear
How much the Mayas hate us.
SANDOVAL We should leave.
As yet, we merely beg to buy their corn,
But fears impel them to combat with us.
We’ve sixty wounded, heat stroke swoons the horse,
And not a flake of gold for all these streams.
Their ruins lurk like wrecks dredged from a swamp.
ALVARADO
A stark reminder for aspiring minds
That cultures often fall as well as rise.
Here comes the father, with our medicine man.
Enter AGUILAR and OLMEDO.
AGUILAR
And so back home the Inquisition, brother,
Still rules the roost?
OLMEDO It does so.
AGUILAR Grim regime!
It clouds the air upon a thousand wings,
Whose shadows spread to pall the gloomy sun.
The cool, luxuriant trees on which it lights,
It dries. How it decays! It browns green grass,
And desolates the leafy countrysides
Until they wither as the Syrian wastes.
OLMEDO So it does.
SANDOVAL [aside] Hark! The moral landslide rumbles.
OLMEDO
Those fires of the Inquisition, lighted
Exclusively to doom the Jews, one day
Are destined to consume their smug oppressors.
SANDOVAL [aside to Alvarado]
He strains a bit to shield the circumcised.
Though I’ve a ***** mouth, my blood is pure.
ALVARADO [aside to Sandoval]
Hush, Sandoval. You go too far.
OLMEDO And you?
Know, Alvarado, there are many men
Who, through misguided zeal- yes, Sandoval-
Convince themselves that they commit no sin
So long as those they **** and violate
Are of a different faith.
ALVARADO It’s not our fault.
I hate the Grand Inquisitor myself.
SANDOVAL
Like any little-loved policing force,
However, it preserves our way of life.
OLMEDO
For its unwanted eye that never slumbers,
Its arm, unseen and ever raised to strike,
Does not o’ercast its gloom on you, but rather
On deviants, foreigners, and heretics.
AGUILAR
It bars all doors of human entry to them-
Marginalized, shorn lambs it ferrets out,
And scapegoats as the enemies of Rome.
Thus, it condemns not only deeds, but thoughts.
From my play in verse, thefloralwar.com
