Mick Hartley

Venezualan President Hugo Chavez wants Angel Falls to be known by its (their?) indigenous name. Cynics might suggest that this was all a bit of anti-American demagoguery – especially as he himself had trouble pronouncing the new name – but, one has to admit, it does have a certain mellifluous charm…

Oh Kerepakupai-Meru!
Is it in Spain, or in Peru?
Is it in Mexico or France,
or close to Timbuktoo, perchance?
No! In the south of Venezuela,
where natives call out "Hello sailor!"
(in their own lingo, truth to tell
and not in English…bloody hell!)

And what of Angel Falls, you say?
Alas they have, like old Bombay
or Mandalay, Madras, Calcutta,
been renamed like some slab of butter.
Now only Everest remains,
reminder of imperial gains
when Britain and the USA
reshaped the world in their own way.

So in the Venezualan jungle,
where skins go red and feet go fungal,
where insects bite and snakes, well, slither
and moths and bats flit here and thither,
As tourists crane their necks to spy
the water pouring from the sky,
it's not the Angel Falls they view,
but….Kerepakupai-Meru.