Catherine Gigante-Brown
Mi Cuba
For mi abuelita, Consuelo Calves, who died April, 2003, in Cuba
On the rooftop bar of the Hotel Inglaterra
Ricardo sings
in heavily-accented English,
not el sons, mambos,
or the bittersweet ballads
of his country,
but the longing for another.
Scattered about
are newfound friends:
a married couple from New York,
a man from Texas,
two more from Louisiana,
human contraband
defying the embargo.
One has una abuela vieja,
an old grandmother,
wasting away in Playa Marinaeo,
her spine frail as a bird’s,
yet with an embrace of iron.
Another desires
the pepper of smoky-sweet
Monte Cristos on his tongue,
and the others,
the tang of jiniteras.
Sipping mojitos,
ron e coca
(with Tropicola, not Coca Cola, por favor)
and cervezas
as Ricardo cradles
his battle-scarred guitar
like a weapon,
the words of John Lennon
bring tears to their throats
which they choke back
with alcohol.
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for…
My Cuba is beautiful.
My Cuba is kind.
My Cuba is hungry.
My Cuba is not
Castro’s failed Communism
or clandestine Capitalism.
My Cuba is right here,
right now,
on the rooftop
of Havana’s Hotel Inglaterra,
not a place of politics
but of people.
Un pais del gente.
A place of people and song.
And of hope.
My Cuba. Mi Cuba.
Catherine Gigante-Brown is the author of the novels The El (2012), The Bells of Brooklyn (2017), Different Drummer (2015), and Better than Sisters (2019), all published by Volossal. Her poems have appeared in Ravishly, Art & Understanding, and Downtown Express, among other journals, as well as in the anthologies Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma (Nirala Publications, 2017), edited by David B. Austell and Kathleen D. Gallagher, and the Brownstone Poets 2018 Anthology (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018), edited by Patricia Carragon. Gigante-Brown is a lifelong Brooklynite.
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