Long Cuban Poems

The Amistad Mutiny

Slavery, a dirty word no matter how it’s pronounced:
Abducted and herded to the slave fortress of Lomboko1 for trade.
To be tossed in chains below deck on the Portuguese ship Tecora,2
Sailing the Atlantic Middle...

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We have something in common, a fellow I talk to now and then. We’re about the same age and perhaps the only ones in the diner who think our past lives are interesting. So when...

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Saul’s twinkling eyes took it all in – the platinum hair framing a first-class face, the silvery sheath dress wrapped around a figure that was out of sight, but in plain view. She was definitely...

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Notes: I am putting the notes upfront, suicide is no laughing matter, however, anything that makes it something that can be discussed I think is a good thing. Humor really is an aid to many...

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As soon as I heard 
You were the First African American Male
To win the Pulitzer prize for Poetry
I wanted to run out and celebrate
I wanted to wake up Hughes and Dunbar
And Baraka and say we...

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American Pies and Porkies

I’m not American though I spent a year in California the land of beaches Hollywood 
‘flower power’ ‘Big Sur’ with dopey dreams and have walked ‘bear’-foot in Yosemite
thus I followed the elections...

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Stokey 2014

I am working the door

At an all night bar

Sometimes I think I have spent too much time alone.  These long nights remind me of flowers and effigies. I drink too much.  There’s...

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The Obeah Woman

Heavy musty air reeks with the Obeah Woman’s pungent perfume, 
sweat, burnt incense, bitter roots, and swirling black smoke,
dim light from a waning moon streams into the shadowy room;
and mirrors crack as restless...

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According to Erick Stackelbetch, The Watch Man on the Wall:

Venezuela will hosting "unofficial war games in Venezuela on August 12, 2022
All of South America  and central America either already is, or is becoming Marxist
As...

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"Satan is a Socialist," by Dr Jennifer Clark
on Tuesday's Sid Roth program.
February 23, 2021.***

Satan, was a liar before the beginning of
recorded time. The Devil caused one-
third of the angels. That were placed
under to him causing...

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Barking dogs echo beyond the doors of the pitch black night.Mysteries of the anxious dark buried deep in the heart of villains playing rock and roll at the poker table, coughing and spitting, feasting and...

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Remember it just like yesterday 
'Twas the sixth of August, independence day
Manley called the election, Busta took the drive
New nation at UN assembly, Jamaica arrived
Topsy turvy, hurly burly, brick brack, nick nacks
All this wondorous excitement
Ever...

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Now let us forget foreign captains
And Conquistadores myth
That colors the morning exuberantly
With exotics wars and phony fathers
Like a fine lady strolling along a rotten street
I have tasted lemon
And though I wince at my tongue's
Sharp reaction
I...

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Cuba…Mamma Mia…like most of the Caribbean; part of the 1492 slam…
Slavery, sugar plantations… invasions, upheaval, independence…
Then the American kisses; with a slight twist…who initiated the ’disses’…?
Was it Blaine…is he insane…?
Was it Marti…the heart of the...

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Hot In Havana.
.
It was a sweltering hot sticky Havana summers
Velvet star-studded night
I was sat enjoying the scene
In a dance bar
As someone played the piano accordion
And guitar
.
Suddenly I was aware of a shapely silhouette 
Stood at...

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Me barber’s still one of them blokes who lives the school of old,
using methods quite old fashioned to what modern trends unfold,
so with scissors, clippers, hot towel, then lathered with a brush,
he’ll shave you with...

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GARDEN

She smelled like the colors
of an intricate garden in which
every geometry and every dimension,
every expression of soft composition,
had the dominant splash, the pervasive
aura, the relentlessly visible subtext
of red

Centered and rooted in the soil
of tradition, North...

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It might be difficult for those growing up in the 50s and 60s                      ...

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Upon revelation’s flight
Under Orion’s focus

I witness a fiery glow towards familiar horizons.

‘Tis no sunrise

It is a striking reality.

My saddened retinas witness monochromatic pitchforks,
Desolated screams,
Embellished declarations from misguided leaders
And self-made stallions riding into condescending sunsets
Without any...

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"American Grafitti" took me back again to High School in the 1960's
"Back to the Future's" nifty hot rod took me back in time and almost left me!

"City Slickers" took me way out west, to rustle...

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You're   a plastic girl,a tarry girl
your wrinkles hid so well,
you're a spoilt girl
drinking  best flowing french champagne,
first class cuban cigars,
owner of so many latest convertible cars.

You're a perfect woman living your dream,
money...

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Only little black girl at  school and her white friends admired her ‘tan’ 
–“I'm brown all over” she told them, proudly motioning to all her body.  
But skin color can be an issue
...

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Let me metamorphose into my alter ego, so prepare yourself for a shock.
I'm the great great grandson of Edgar Allen Poe, So call me the Poetic Warlock!

Beware of my stare for I will hypnotize; This...

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A pool table lined with blue felt
sports a lively, raucous game,
ivory cracks, the men drink,
shoot the bull while they play.

A humidor lined in fine wood
stocked with Cuban cigars,
a smoking lounge grandiose,
ceiling painted like the stars.

A...

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What melody is that which I hear? Is it the notes that a maestro directs his 
orchestra to?
Is the sounds that a tenor flute emits as you make love to me? Play me in your...

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