The Angry Tide
A poem
Written while watching the results of the election in Colombia, with the far right of a special type growing with vehemence in Latin America
Fernando Botero (Colombia), La Masacre de Mejor Esquina, 1997.
*****
The plazas fill with anger at the falling rate of pay,
While men in tailored jackets teach resentment how to pray;
La patria está en peligro, the evening papers cry,
And every wounded certainty demands a culprit by and by.
The bankers toast the markets; the crowds salute the drum,
The old ghosts cross the pampas and whisper, ya volvieron;
Each ballot bears a thundercloud, each slogan wears a smile,
And history, dressed as novelty, walks with us a little while.
23 June 2026
This poem feels like a classic, as new and old as the problems it describes
Thanks for having us in your thoughts. My heart is absolutely broken seeing how my fellow Colombians have chosen death once more. At the end García Marquez may be right: “races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth”