Santiago

Santiago has the hot breath
Of 8 million people
Melting the snow off the peaks
Of the Andes Mountains.

Santiago has the drone of dross.
The bore of too much traffic.
No congestion.
Just the incessant roar and groan
Of pollution dinosaurs.

Santiago has a skin
Dusted with the history of traffic.
Her buildings caked in cancer
And crumbling like sweet teeth.

Santiago has an ancient people
Slumped in slums
And keeping up with the Jones’.
Those first world Jones’
In over-developed countries
Who can’t keep up with themselves.

Santiago has the same shit
As everywhere else,
Just that it is more tired here,
More fatigued by it’s chosen path
That was chosen for it.

In those darkest of brown eyes,
Insets in a cultures hair-
Tiredness reaches out.


Santiago, Chile
Benjamin W Wild © copyright 2007