O God of Cuba
By Jordan Pérez
O god of tarantulas hissing from the trees
O god of cassava cut to the quick
O god of the chicken’s dragging, broken neck
O god of burying your money
O god of guayaba’s split red belly
O god of the soldier taking your wedding ring
O god of young cursing teeth
O god of the baseball stadium where,
in 1966, a soldier stood on third base
and sent hundreds of men to work
the sugarcane fields.
O god of barbed wire fences
O god of losing your name
O god of eating stray cats
O god of fake executions
O god of real executions
O god of being hung by your hands
O god of paper flowers in your bunk
Source: Poetry (October 2023)