Reinaldo Arenas

His first poems Were carved with a knife On the tree trunks in the countryside He wrote in prison He wrote high up in the trees In Havana`s parks where He hid from the Cuban police In his new island-jail In his shabby apartment Illuminated by Manhattan lights Very tired, very ill In a sea of paper He wanted to die by the sea And when the night fell The death crawled Together with pills and alcohol His sadness as deep as the sea Was burnt and ashes scattered at the sea