Cuba Libre Poem by John Stone

Cuba Libré


Free to breathe the heady air of expectation
Island in the Sun seeking a place in the Sun

What neighbouring mountain of plenty
casts a dark shadow over the labours in your fertile fields
and mocks the legitimacy of your needs?

What un-neighbourly neighbour denies you
as it does so many of its own who have no place in the Sun?

What spirit moves you to such generosity
toward those who cross your borders laden with that of which you can only dream?

How do you forbear those whose pockets bulge with more than they need and who come to buy what cannot be bought?
Whose values are measured by the dollar not by the heart!

Substance can be bartered out of need and greed
but hearts cannot be sold
they can only be given

Your spirit is on an altogether different plane



John Stockford Stone August 2006