The Andes of Peru

The Andes of Peru

Fickle skies, blue as a kingfisher’s wing,

Crouching clouds casting cool shadows

On gap-toothed, patchwork mountain slopes.

Fields of barley, terraced, shimmering

Ice-green torrents racing through canyons,

Curry dust in eucalyptus-crisp air.

Lofty roads, feats of ingenuity,

Littered with corpses of sex-mad dogs,

The twisted hulks of hapless trucks.

Burdened women with black braided hair,

Weathered faces, snot-caked toddlers,

Men drunk on chicha and despair.

Trash spilling down slogan-scarred hills,

Adobe houses, daubed with mint,

Streets thrumming with colour and dance.

Beauty and the beast,

These are the Andes of my Peru.