If you embark to Switzerland
you'll see the fields sprout dragon's teeth
constructed by the government,
in pyramids of blunt concrete,

With each about a meter tall
arranged into a staggered row
Just like the famous chocolate bar
the locals call them Toblerone

They number some three thousand strong
progressing like a Swiss Great Wall
through fields and forests right along
the path where they were first installed

In World War Two, a life ago,
each one a giant, concrete spike
installed in hope to stop the flow
of Panzer tanks from Hitler's Reich.

If you've the opportunity
to walk this line of stone defense
you feel a continuity
they bring into the present tense:

Testaments that we bequeathed to
destiny in desperation,
leaving fields of dragon's teeth to
speak to future generations.


©2024 Mateo Vélez