Blink

Guerrillas, or just a taxi that needs to get its lights fixed?

Blink

A Toyota cruiser shoots around the corner
Towards me, down the hill and a motorcycle’s lights flash and 
A woman runs across the road in front of them all at once
I freeze seeing the version with the gun, the robbery, the death - 
Nothing is still here, nothing flows smoothly but sporadically, 
Flashing, lurching, my eyes dart to my periphery:
Convoy, ambassador’s car, president, police, paramilitary, 
Guerrillas, or just a taxi that needs to get its lights fixed? 

---

How people move sets the tone for a city. How fast people walk, how fast the cars drive, how they interact. 

Bogota hasn’t been designed for interaction. 

Pedestrian crossings look dusty under the wheels of cars as they take the right-angle turn whilst the little green walker flashes “go”.  You just have to go for it. 

There are many points on my way to work that don’t have crossing marked, and I just have to run. One of these is in front of a blind bend. I wrote this poem after I walked home one day and all this happened, all at once.

A Toyota Cruiser came flying round the corner with flashing red and blue lights as a motorcycle took the wide line, going for the overtake, as the woman a few steps ahead of me rushed to cross. And then a taxi went past with lights blistering in different colours, mismatched, unevenly placed. 

This poem attempted to capture all of the possibilities as this all flew by in seconds. Being outside in Bogota comes with insecurity. It seems highlighted by the paroxysm of lights, sirens, and speeding vehicles. There seems to be no regulation. Brake lights flash constantly, indicators are left on, and then there’s the horns. A taxi ran through a pedestrian crossing I was on this week with a police siren for its horn. I feel like my hair is raised at all times. The vehicle will not stop for you, it may or may not be police, there is the persistent risk of motorcycle-riding thieves, and outside of Bogotá, gunmen, and militants. These Toyota Cruisers could contain anyone.

Of course it is a privilege to have the public funds to install pedestrian crossings, regulate vehicles, prioritise pedestrians and their safety, the environment even. Colombia does not enjoy that kind of freedom and I know that. This was just what went through my mind in the blink of an eye, on my walk home.