Poem by Christopher A. Williams

October 2017

One, and that’s it . . .

Sun-cracked mirror
                               reaches a shrieking crescendo,
      crashed realities
                               but slither and slide
      beside the flambéing
                                                                            séance too real to believe.

Around the malecón,
                               someone swore in vain
      and dropped dead
                               upon drowning
                                                         in his own filth,
         spawned by years of dictators
                                                            dying to live
               viva la revoluciòn!

   . . . would not crash its kind head
                                                             on the knees of hardship
                            if the soul would but permit
                                                                     one catharsis
                                                                                          set ablaze only
by visions
of sin
on waves
of rolling
               drums
that hum
without meaning
                         except
on the back of tomorrow,
whose waking sighs
bring relief
amid simmering fears
of yesterday’s panic.

 

Christopher A. Williams is an assistant professor of philosophy, history, English, and sociology and is the acting chair of the Social Sciences Department at the University College of the Cayman Islands. He has published numerous poems and articles in top-tiered journals and has recently published his first book, Defining the Caymanian Identity (2015).