Mariel Reflections

[burk]

Recollections of Florida beaches,
Strewn with human cargo.
The wreckage and flotsam,
The derivatives of ancient
Haitian teak, and Cuban dreams of
Liberty and Freedom.

The exodus of one way packet fleets,
Sailing for elusive dreams,
Fifty people in a thirty foot vessel.
The risk is worth the wrath
Of the Sargasso Sea.

How can I convey the loss and human toll?
What can one say, when you see them sink and drown
Just fifteen yards shy of freedom’s caress?

Gray bearded rats, and demented, dictatorial doctors
Pushed them onto their homeland shores,
Pitching them into the sea.

A Haitian and Cuban cemetery…
Lost futures and wasted dreams
At the hand of Power’s
Hierarchy.
These waters and reflections
Have become a part of me.

I used to love the Ocean,
In my youth it was my calling.
The only call that I hear now
Are the screams of the drowning and dying.

And to what ends I ask?
And to what ends I ask?
So much for the poor and down trodden,
But this is one who has never forgotten.
The scars of memory
Shall remain,
 And I shall never forget.