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  • Issue 2.1

Issue 1.6 - Ray Ball

5/27/2019

2 Comments

 

​The Island of July


One afternoon, after I finish with the fragile documents I’m consulting in Cuba’s national archive, it’s past the cut-off time when I can request more materials. A satellite without a planet, I meander the streets aimlessly until I am due to meet up with another foreign researcher. Lush gardens grow in the cracks in the sidewalks. My new friend and I go for mojitos and pay to swim at the pool of one of the hotels. Later, I will feel guilty about this, but in the moment all I feel is relief from the heat and squelching humidity.
 
After we swim, I need to exchange currency. My friend is a Canadian and forgets for a moment that I can’t just use one of the banks, as she has been doing during her time in Havana. Because the cadeca turns out to be closed, she trades me a bit of money, so I can make it another day or two. Then, we decide to visit one of the city’s many churches. It turns out to be closed, but we circle the white and yellowing ivory exterior so that I can see the bronze statue commemorating Cecelia Valdés, the main character of Villaverde’s great novel. I have been reading this critique of slave society in nineteenth-century Cuba a few pages at a time on shaded patios and in bed before I drift into troubled slumber.
 
nocturne shadow
a millipede emerges
segmented secretion
​

I dream of scorpions or maybe I am one. Quizás, quizás, quizás. Opportunist feeding on the past. I have spent the average monthly salary of a Cuban in three days on cocktails and internet cards.
​

​     Cadeca, ETECSA.
     Come out of each with less
     than what you took in

​*****
Ray Ball and Caroline Streff Collaboration
2 Comments
Alan Summers link
5/31/2019 10:32:28 am

Wonderful! And a fortune on cocktails too! I'm reminded of a previous mother-in-law who years later mentioned she had an affair with one of the most famously named cocktails... Count Molotov. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Great to see your work here, hope I see more!

Reply
Mark Gilbert
7/2/2019 06:01:29 pm

Some beautiful expressions in the prose - I particularly like 'lush gardens grow in the cracks in the sidewalks'. I also pick up on some nice ambiguity, for instance 'troubled slumber' after reading about slavery, and the delicious line 'I dream of scorpions or maybe I am one'. Perhaps the narrator's subconscious is wondering whether they are predator or prey?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Ray Ball
    ​

    grew up in a house full of snakes. She is a history professor, Pushcart-nominated poet, and editor at Alaska Women Speak. Her chapbook Tithe of Salt was just published by Louisiana Literature Press. She can be found on Twitter @ProfessorBall.

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  • HOME
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    • 2019 >
      • Issue 1.1
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      • Stacey Balkun
      • Ray Ball
      • Leslie Bamford
      • Aaron Barry
      • Jan Benson
      • Dainy Bernstein
      • Johannes S. H. Bjerg ​
      • Adam T. Bogar
      • Dave Bonta
      • Stephen Briseño
      • Morwen Brosschot
      • Michael H. Brownstein
      • Helen Buckingham
      • Susan Burch
      • Tony Burfield
      • Kimberly Burnham
      • Sondra J. Byrnes
      • Robyn Cairns
      • Erin Castaldi
      • Maria Concetta Conti
      • Seth Copeland
      • Elizabeth Crocket
      • Norman Darlington
      • Cherie Hunter Day
      • Chris Dominiczak
      • Radostina A. Dragostinova
      • Amanda Earl
      • Kirsten Cliff Elliot
      • TAK Erzinger
      • Lee Felty
      • Jacob Fowler
      • Terri L. French
      • Joshua Gage
      • Mary Ellen Gambutti
      • Goran Gatalica
      • Samar Ghose
      • Mark Gilbert
      • Brent Goodman
      • Engin Gülez
      • Kinshuk Gupta
      • Jeffrey Hanson
      • John Hawkhead
      • Tia Haynes
      • David He
      • Kyle Hemmings
      • Gary Hittmeyer
      • Atsushi Ikeda
      • Roberta Beach Jacobson ​
      • Peter Jastermsky
      • Lisa T.W. Jones
      • Roger Jones
      • David J Kelly
      • Julie Bloss Kelsey
      • Bill Kenney
      • Susan King
      • Nicholas Klacsanzky
      • J.I. Kleinberg
      • Deborah P Kolodji
      • Laurie Kolp
      • Lavana Kray
      • Neha R. Krishna
      • Natalia Kuznetsova
      • Kat Lehmann
      • Eric A. Lohman
      • Amy Losak
      • Antonietta Losito
      • Carole MacRury
      • Martha Magenta
      • Susan Mallernee
      • John C. Mannone
      • Nicholas Mathisen
      • Callie McCann-Eros
      • Marietta McGregor
      • Babs McGrory
      • Andy McLellan
      • John McManus
      • Indra Neil Mekala
      • Mark Meyer
      • Lori A Minor
      • Ben Moeller-Gaa
      • Elizabeth Moura
      • Gautam Nadkarni
      • Kit Pancoast Nagamura
      • Ashish Narain
      • Patti Niehoff
      • Réka Nyitrai
      • Michael O'Brien
      • Phil Openshaw
      • oyoguhito
      • Laura Page
      • Vandana Parashar
      • Marianne Paul
      • Madhuri Pillai
      • Pearl Pirie
      • Keith Polette
      • Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
      • Lynne Rees
      • Bryan Rickert
      • Pere Risteski
      • Alexis Rotella
      • Natalia L Rudychev
      • Barbara Sabol
      • Barun Saha
      • Fabio Sassi
      • Agnes Eva Savich
      • Rich Schilling
      • Olivier Schopfer
      • Dan Schwerin
      • ​Ron Scully
      • Yesha Shah
      • ​Richa Sharma
      • Tiffany Shaw-Diaz
      • Christina Sng ​
      • Sheila Sondik
      • Barbara Strang
      • Debbie Strange
      • Caroline Streff
      • Alan Summers
      • Agus Maulana Sunjaya
      • Rachel Sutcliffe
      • Hansha Teki
      • Patsy Turner
      • Rp Verlaine
      • Christine L. Villa
      • Margaret Walker
      • Julie Warther
      • Bill Waters
      • Lucy Whitehead
      • Phoebe Woofter
      • ​Mathew Yates
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