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.
