We hid amid the swaying fields of sugar cane
when Castro overthrew that fool, Fulgencio,

you in your libidinous red dress that kept
all the men of Plaza Vieja very happy, every day
a procession after the bullfights and the executions;

I think I was dead every morning I was without you,
the statues of the city cold, but I understood them,

at night we drank and danced and then we retired to watch
all the old cars going fast under the trestles,

In the daytime, I worked right near San Cristobal,
trying to write like Hemingway on our old typewriter,

but you cured me for my lack of a reputation,
me, arriving home to find you naked and wet in bed,
leaving me hungry for your soul like a wallet longing
for crisp green bills;

but then change and revolution came!

and we were all happy and afraid as we hid in the fields,
dreaming of the former, hoping for tomorrow,
hiding for a day that turned into the last fifty years;

And now I am old and you have already gone,
nothing to quench my thirst like things used to do,

Jesus! I’m tired of waiting for Cuba to change!

Cuba is both a truth and a fiction, a great story of lust
and of craving,

A country that longs for tomorrow to be like yesterday,
and for yesterday to be like tomorrow. Amen.

Jeanpaul Ferro is a novelist, poet, and short fiction author from Providence, Rhode Island. A 6-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his work has been featured on National Public Radio, Columbia Review, Emerson Review, Connecticut Review, Contemporary American Voices, Portland Monthly, Hawaii Review, The Providence Journal, and many others. His published works include All The Good Promises (Plowman Press, 1994), Becoming X (BlazeVox Books, 2008), You Know Too Much About Flying Saucers (Thumbscrews Press, 2009) Essendo Morti - Being Dead (Goldfish Press, 2009), and the forthcoming 27 Hours in Palms Springs (Big Table Publishing, 2009).