La Pampa de Anta

Yesterday’s weather left watermarks
darkly down the rugged adobe wall
that enshadows a still-muddy road
where a dog with a mottled coat
lies asleep beneath a Saybo tree,
its muzzle pointing into the wind
scented by wet soil, from fields

of potato plants neatly cultivated
in low lanes which sway and ripple

with fluttering leaves of rich green,
highlighted by wildly bobbing dots of
vibrant white and violet-hued blossoms,
but now this pleasant vista is disturbed
by hissing air brakes and the skidding,
squishing tires of a delivery truck

from the limestone fertilizer factory
at Cachimayo — as the alert driver
stops to avert hitting a skinny kid
trying to ride a dilapidated bike —
these noises awakening the shaggy dog
that scampers off, around the corner
of a new building with its prominent
roadside face recently emblazoned by
yet another of the multitudinous signs
blatantly advertising COLA drinks —
a visual bane and nationwide blight.