{This is a response to What Pegman Saw, a Google Maps-inspired writing prompt of 150 words. This week we are in Patagonia, in Southern Chile, South America. This poem’s imagery is heavily indebted to a New York Times article, In Chilean Patagonia, Following a Track to the End of the World, by Joshua Hammer. It is about a birdwatching trip, and it makes Patagonia sound like a paradise for such pursuits. The picture is from our local zoo. Not the best quality, I’m afraid, since it was taken at quite a distance, without a zoom.
Whitewash refers to bird feces. A soda lake is a highly alkaline lake, with pH values of around 9-11, where 7 is neutral like water. A puma is a large cat. A guanaco is related to the llama, but smaller and wild. The speckles refer to a black, white-speckled lizard.
Nandus are upright, flightless walking birds, that look alot like ostriches (the “n” is supposed to have a squiggle above it, but I couldn’t find that character in caps). According to the article above, Charles Darwin, the naturalist,apparently tried and tried to find a ñandu on his expedition on the H.M.S. Beagle. He did not realize, until he had already begun eating, that it had been served to him for dinner…
Coirón is a yellow grass. The pampas is a grassland of flat, fertile plains in South America. The Highway at the End of the World (La Renta del Fin del Mundo) is a real, two-lane highway, through national parks and very sparsely populated areas. The Devil’s Dwelling is the name of an extinct volcano in this region. And, finally, in Joshua Hammer’s piece above, a local woman did say something similar to the quote below, though, perhaps, not as forcefully.
Hope you enjoy! Thanks for the prompt and for reading!}
Whitewash, on volcanic rims;
Falcons in the air;
Flamingos, burning coral,
On the soda lake, just there;
Puma’s carcass, left behind
(A furry guanaco);
Black fields, caked in lava,
From eruptions, long ago;
Speckles, racing blackly,
On the lava, can’t relax;
And while we peer down rusty slopes
Of scree, the devils’ backs,
Nandus stroll the pampas
In the coirón grass, so neat
(The Beagle searched in vain to find
Them: Darwin’s tasty treat.)
The Highway at the End of the World
(Lanes only There and Back)
Delivers the Devil’s Dwelling,
Far off the beaten track.
“The end of the world, to you,” they say,
Of the harsh land, where they dwell,
“Turn around; go back
To the beaten track,
And leave us here, in Hell.”
Copyright 2019 Andrea LeDew
Lovely poem. Patagonia looks so great in the google pictures, though I guess in real life it’s usually battered by storm after storm. There’s beauty in that, too.
Especially having such a large swath of land, covered by extinct volcanoes and black hardened lava seems otherworldly to me. Thank you Josh.
You’ve incorporated a lot into your poem, Andi. It truly is the end of the world down there!
But not to those who live there! Thanks Penny!
I, too, was touched by the idea of this place being at the end of the world, however that is where the similarity ends.
This is lyrical and lovely–so lovely I had to read it aloud a couple of times to truly appreciate it’s beauty and depth. My favorite line is “Nandus stroll the pampas”. I think it suits them!
Thank you, Karen. Yes, you can almost imagine them carrying parasols!I’m so glad you enjoyed it!