Meet the New Boss

by Alberto Zayden

Cubanacan
Cubanacon
Cubanacan’t

Would choose instead
to pull the wool over her eyes
Or any other pair that dares to show
the battered face of compromise

Cubana won’t!

Would choose instead
to wave the flag
from separate beds
More bitter than a new divorce
More jaded than an old one

As CIA
explains away
a book of foiled
assassinations
And gulf stream sharks
chew sinewy fat
torn from the limbs
of desperation

Cubana feels the USA getting its way
and hers as well
for cases of emergency — or greed

Dancing through despots new and old
She dreads the reinvented questions
The bottom line in a reflection
Mirrored 90 miles away

With lead pencils and a black eraser
Accountants tallying the past
Cleff the notes that ring in silent
The Cha-Ching that drives the Cha Cha Cha