Castro Retires

loyal one done

today Fidel stepped down
Like his name suggests his loyalty
to the Revolucion cannot be betrayed
his ailing body and tired constitution
have tamed his resolve to stay in power
meanwhile Negraponte and cronies
clamoring for an election in Cuba
“freedom" but no lift of the embargo
and the White House in a pinch as
new documents about Kennedy’s assassination
could be tied to Hollywood contracts
in my old house in Bartow the
bomb shelter left over from the Cuban
missile crisis still smells like all the
pesticides and fertilizers my grandfather used to store there
to make the lawn green and free of weeds
Castro -the last of a league of dreamers of a better world
who knows if his route was flawed
or if he just had too many sticks
thrown into his spokes for good measure
by the cia, fbi, world bank, world monetary fund,
rich Cuban post-colonial royalty, and then some
one thing seems certain in these times
cynicism reigns
imagine for a minute a charismatic leader like Che
or Fidel, preaching from the pulpit of liberty and
dignity, breathing fire and holy water to cleanse us all
of our inequities and make all man
stand on equal ground
would you believe it? would I? your brother or your mum?
politricks is politricks and the people don’t believe
anymore in anything besides the tabloids
not in Obama or Clinton, not even in Koffi
the world churns the lesser than into mulch
for the machine of resource allocation for the
specials, leaving internal strife for the masses
so as Castro fades what will remain of his passion?
we’re moving into times of
I don’t cares and we’re all waiting to see who’ starring
as soon as the writers go back to work
and Hollywood starts writing checks