After dark
I slide
like a serpent
out of my skin
and become
the blue bahía
of Cienfuegos
the rhythm
and orishas of Rumba
the sugar-sweet smoke
of Cohíba
curling
vanishing
like a spirit
into the wet-hot
Havana night
the crocodile’s
lash and bite
the fever blood
of lovers
that could call fire
from rain
Come daylight
I am woman
again
-----
Shayla Hawkins has been published in, among other journals, Calabash, The Caribbean Writer, Tongues of the Ocean, TORCH: Poetry, Prose, and Short Stories by African American Women, and Vwa: Poems for Haiti. She lives in Detroit, Michigan.
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