For Summer: Florida Poets: Adrian Castro [by Emma Trelles]

The Sound Of One Immigrant Clapping
after Czeslaw Milosz

by Adrian Castro

Let's say he actually

did not

arrive on a boat--

that the relentless colonel

never found his subtle throat hidden

under the trance of the clave

or thunder hands that spoke

repíques of those crimes

Let's say he went to Nueva York

on the assumption

Mario Bauzá

Machito or

Tito (Rodriguez or Puente)

could make his legs & hips move

in a constellation of joy

Let's say he merely

tried

to hear the echo of his arms

flapping through a factory

like a red rag fastened to that fan

Let's say the cold

often froze his vowels

tan Caribeña

tan resvalosa y mermelada--

Could the immigrant even

mute the melody of his tongue--

They say it is silence

that makes music

But this will be like

drumming

on a distant tuft of cloud like

the colonel cutting the sound he never found

But it takes years of forgetting

for a stranger

to breathe the salt water

or glance at a pile of stones

& say

I arrived through this portal

This is now my home...


Adrian Castro is a poet, performer, and interdisciplinary artist. He was born in Miami from Caribbean heritage, which has provided fertile ground for the rhythmic Afro-Caribbean style in which he writes and performs. He is the author of Cantos to Blood & Honey, Wise Fish, and Handling Destiny, all from Coffee House Press, and has been published in several literary anthologies including Conjunctions, Paper Dance: 55 Latino Poets; Little Havana Blues; A Century of Cuban Writers in Florida; Step Into A World: A Global Anthology of New Black Literature; and Renaming Ecstasy: Latino Writings on the Sacred. He is the recipient of a USA Knight Foundation Fellowship, a Cintas Fellowship, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, the NALAC Fund for the Arts Individual Fellowship, and the Eric Mathieu King award from the Academy of American Poets. Adrian Castro is also a board certified Doctor of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine and herbalist. "The Sound of One Immigrant Clapping" first appeared in his collection Wise Fish: Tales in 6/8 Time. 

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