Recalling A Colombian Novel

The Vortex

Once I read a book about the jungle,

The Amazon’s rainforest wasn’t friendly,

So from leaves I made a bundle

I felt as I was always thirsty

But my bed, despite soft, was always dirty

Everything was just a Vortex

Where animals, characters, and nature seemed so complex

So many trees, but one had the highest vertex

Where birds were placidly in context

The only one estranged by it was me, a Forex
Taken from the rubber trees there was natural latex

And somehow I felt as if I were also lost

But not in those book’s letters

It was a strange feeling of being estranged

I would like to have feathers,

I was lost amidst everything, but engaged.

Animals singing in deafening choirs,

Others shouting trying to set off the fires

The whole nature was a triumph

For the spirit, it was like being on a trial

And error display of God’s no bias.

Arturo Cova, a young poet in those days,
 And Alicia lived in Bogotá, a paradise, 
Both in love escaped to the plains,
That became a  purgatory plenty of pains
Left in search of the forest and indigenous without any vice.

But jungle became just hell
Where betrayals were their daily bread
No people could ever escape
Without it resounding in their heads 
What a Vortex! It's depicted as a trap to end up dead

We have chosen to live in concrete jungles
Even Rivera went to live in one of them
There, we are hurt with many crinkles
These new cities are also very noisy,
Our thoughts cannot resound, we are so clumsy
For having chosen to deforest for the profit of a few men
It is easier to live there, it is cozy
Have we really made  the greatest choice, then?

By Miss Odilia Pérez
E.L.A. Teacher
Jan. 29th, 2020