Turks and Caicos Islands

I am not the man to mock a quest

Nor belittle a dreamer like Ponce de León-

Ruthless bastard though he may have been-

Seeking all his years the Fountain of Youth.


Ocean’s heights-sky’s abyss!

Horizonless life-all dimensions at once-

Infinite reflections receding

In the smoke-and-mirrors blur...

Constellations of shipwrecks call to me

Through the annihilating afternoons...


An iguana shrugs off its worn-out skin

And steps free,regenerated,

Greedy for seven-year apples.

Humpback whales are singing

Their way through the passage,

Whistling and rumbling intricate jazz.



Cross-currents and sea monsters

Bedevil the pirate blue.

Time sounds the queen conch shell.

Orpheus’s harp is playing in the night sky.


Cave-born, the Tainos swam

Over the heart’s secret coral reef;

The two-faced world-

A too-clever twin-child-

Played with yes and no,

With manioc and hurricane.