For my Father

 Your mother gripped you with her last strength as she slipped away. Perhaps she knew what you would have to endure,  and maternally sought to save you. Take you with her to the peace of heaven,  but heaven was not for you, not yet. You had to stay and witness. To say goodbye to your dog and your little black chicken and your grandmas. the farm with the little creek you would bathe in. Every fork you ate from, everyone you loved, every place you stepped belonged now to a ubiquitous darkness an incredible evil.

The evil poison took its grip and dropped you into oblivion. 

An orphan from the sea,

 child of paradise lost. 

You were born again, this time, in America where you became James Bond, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra and anyone else you wanted to be. The chains were off but the heart ties, still echo the sounds of the island.  The warm breeze at night, beny more on a static victrola as the rain begins, the poetry, the rhythm....

 And when you feel it, you cry. 

You have given me these tears, 

this anger, 

this righteousness. 

Passed through your blood to mine, the waves of my heart crash and moan...LIBERTAD! LIBERTAD!