Summary

"The Colonel" by Carolyn Forche focuses on human rights violations committed during the civil war in El Salvador, where the author spent some time working as a journalist in the early 1970's. The poem begins with a declaration that "What you have heard is true" (1), and the next few lines describe what seems to be a relatively normal situation in the home of the colonel during a dinner the speaker attends there. She says, "There were daily papers, pet dogs" (3), and "On the television was a cop show" (5). The colonel's family is also there: "His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night" (1-3). A fancy dinner of "rack of lamb, good wine" (9), is served by a maid.

However, interspersed among these relatively mundane details are observations of other things that are...