Polymeter is among the most controversial topics in meter studies: Can a person truly entrain to two meters simultaneously? This article examines how Colombian currulao’s “rhythmic venom” (veneno rítmico)—a syncopated pattern whose notes do not align with the genre’s conventional beats—causes listeners with varying degrees of stylistic expertise to have drastically different interpretations of the meter(s). It argues that polymetric perception involves a very rapid switching between metric interpretations, and that implicit meters—exclusively in the minds of enculturated listeners and not implied by onsets—can exist in a polymetric tension with sounding pulse streams in the music.