"You tell me you are a poet. If so, our destination is the same.
I find myself now the boatman, driving a taxi at the end of the world.
I will see that you arrive safely, my friend, I will get you there."
After the entire text of the poem, Forche reveals that the narrator is not an actual boatman working to get people across a shore but a metaphorical one. He or she professes their goals in this excerpt where they explain that they are a leader. The boatman is helping refugees escape a war-torn nation. Additionally this may be a reference to Gautama, the Buddha, who spent his later years describing his occupation as a boatman. He believed that he was responsible for ferrying people's souls inter higher levels of consciousness.
"What you have heard is true. I was in his house."
This delightful introduction to "The Colonel" sets the tone for her bizarre encounter in El Salvador. These are the only two phrases which appear in the same line, the only lines not enjambed in the entire poem. Both sentences imply that the reader has been expecting to read this account and possesses some exterior knowledge about the subject of the poem. Based upon Forche's public career, these are not wild assumptions. She writes as if confiding a secret, and this first line is a warning. This sort of eye-witness account is a common trope in the horror genre, which definitely sets the tone for the rest of this terrifying story.
"This is not paella, this what
has become of those who remained
in Buenos Aires. . ."
In this poem, Forche describes she and a friend seated at an outdoor restaurant eating Paella in Buenos Aires. As she explains, she is reminded of the death of a woman she knew named Elena and her husband, who were murdered on these streets. Suddenly she exclaims that the pastry is not just a pastry. It's become a representation of what life in Buenos Aires has devolved to be. The people sit in cafes, wondering when it'll be their turn to be shot.
"In the night I come to you and it seems a shame
to waste my deepest shudders on a wall of a man."
In this poem Forche narrates from the perspective of a woman who feels unappreciated by her romantic partner. Despite her best efforts to make the relationship successful, she feels it is failing. All of a sudden she regrets choosing him, worrying that he's not worth her valuable time. These two lines in particular illustrate Forche's true subject for the text: death. The narrator is afraid of wasting her time on this man because she knows eventually she'll die. Eventually, if she stays with him, she will regret the time spent with him and it will be to late; her life will already be finished.
