This poem was the result of a comission to write a poem for Bello Magazine. I was given a photo essay on Cuba by a Latino photographer. I wrote two poem based on the photos. Unfortunately they chose the lesser of the two poems. This is the poem they should have chosen.


If I were to write the creation
The first man

The first woman
Would be born from

The heart of
Cuba

Where angels live
Among men

Disguised …. Walk
Among us rolling

Cigars, wait for
Rain and drink

Coffee. In
Cuba

Man and angels
Would be on family

The one hidden
To the other like

Two sisters caught by
The camera just before

Laughing One sister
With wings hidden

Under her dress.
See the shoeshine

He is an archangel
His sword hidden

In his box. In Cuba
It would all begin

From the cane fields
Adam would rise

Sweet and coarse
And Eve would

Emerge from the beating
Of a drum.

We would all dance
And carry dolls

and wait for
the moment of redemption

As if it were a summer
Storm moving closer


Filled with love letters
From God.