Old Havana

. . . 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

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Realities of Empire (ft. Nathan Pinkoski)

R. R. Reno

In this episode, Nathan Pinkoski joins R. R. Reno on The Editor’s Desk to talk about his…

From Little Rock to Minneapolis

R. R. Reno

Recent reports and images from Minneapolis reminded me of Little Rock in 1957, where attempts were made…

The Banality of Minnesota Fraud

Daniel Strand

With each passing day, the public fraud uncovered in Minnesota—mainly involving Medicaid, childcare, and other public assistance…