. . . pongee-colored girls in white dresses the sun
shone through in multiple haloes
where they lay alongside streets like sofas
reading José Martí behind potted ferns
in avenue-knolls paved with Key West grass
and long-leaved tobacco shaved and scented like bark strips.
I dreamt a UCLA campus built by descendants of conquistadores:
Churriguerra architects and new-freed import-labor,
not the mystical-realism of material-less materialism in La Habana Vieja
in the hands of UNESCO-planners, waiting wanly
at the end of a totalitarian century breeding slaves
freed into nightmare-bondage to an Ever-Glorious Future.
—Anthony Kerrigan
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
