Bel kiss
(on reading poems by Belkis Cuza Malè)

The Cuban poet is right.
Every day the search for more
than the lot allotted
to us breaks our back
and our spirit. We may
find refuge in the attraction
between what we express
and what we repress,
but it is a refuge without words.
Sometimes dusk, a sleeping
child suffices. In any case,
the raw material is bound to hurt,
pulling, as it does - against.

No Prince may kiss you, Belkis
but I do. I kiss you from my northern
femisphere
ebbing with the lipful tide
my tongue reaching the words
on the tip of yours.

Anamaría Crowe Serrano