Baracoa
Always below is the beating of the heart.
Next door a nun is singing,
a washing machine running,
on the Malecón, spray booms and explodes,
the plates of a wrecked ship
clank and clatter with the tide.
The barking of perros, the clucking of gallos,
the rustling of palmettos.
She sits in a rocking chair, sorting rice.
No te vayas de mi casa, she says,
Por favor. Soy triste. Soy sola.
From the square, the music of fiesta,
children screaming on the roundabouts;
the clouds are high like early morning dreams
and always below is the pounding of the waves.
• • •
David Pratt’s poetry and short stories have been published in over 100 literary journals in the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia, including Avalon Literary Review, California Quarterly, Chaffin Journal, Comstock Review, Indiana Review, Prairie Journal, Rattle, The Formalist, and The Road not Taken. A volume of poetry, Apprehensions of van Gogh, was published by Hidden Brook Press in 2015.