MESSENGER

Resting in Havana’s Central Park
Jose Marti in white marble, centers
Rectangular palms squaring shade
Benches at both end quarters, horses
Draw carriages with visitors holding
Digital cameras, echoing from a hotel
Bar, a quartet  sings  “y nada más”.
I am a liberated bearer of messages
From an outside world to inner realms
To people waiting for some few words
Of hope or in their fear of abandonment
Whose lives come spelled out in written
Orders; limits of space are well defined
By corridors, doors, meeting rooms and yards
All enclosed in constant obligatory ceremony.
My authentic quest for an unattainable end
Becomes its own tragic journey, struggling
In the face of my own limits, even death.
In life nothing quite ends, new voices
Mingle, whispering with past choruses
Like this Caribbean breeze moving
My heart as leaves and fronds move.

c) Jan G. Otterstrom F.
    August 11, 2007
    La Habana, Cuba