ELLEN THE TALL ONE

Four thousand five hundred and rising,

Chewing coca leaves to keep my head.

Waves of dizziness,

Spells of fatigue,

Feeling fucked after a fifty-metre stretch.

 .

Leaf after leaf,

Joins the cluster in my gums.

Is this remedy even legit?

Is that a single tingle in my mouth?

Or am I sucking down a placebo,

To keep me sane,

On this highest of high,

Barren desert plains?

 .

Well the bolivianos are doing it.

Heck, they’re supplying the greenery.

Oh well guess it beats chewing nothing.

Another handful of leaves please,

While I sit back in wonder,

Of this dusty, windswept scenery.

Like a stream trickling down a mountain, the sand swirls down the dune.

Tres bolivianos tomando una pausa.

For a moment I was melting in a Salvador Dali painting.

High levels of arsenic and other minerals allow the salt lagoon to remain unfrozen despite reaching temperatures of -56 degrees Celsius.

R E LA T E D :: ¤ Dalí ¤ & ¤ Siloli ¤