EDITOR, The Tribune.

A Day inevitable has after all Arrived

(For Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz,

August 13, 1926 to November 25, 2016)

When I get back to Cuba,

will I sense this loss  

will it be empty of something

what void has this death,

has his death created, caused,

in Cuba as well as in all the world

is it like air gone out

of all the tyres on the road,

out of all the tyres in the world

Castro expiring, sighing,

tired after all, right through

his mind and body passing

now that he has lain down and died,

now that he has given up his life,

now that he has been taken back,

taken up, taken away from us and from the sum of life

what will - who will there be to fill us, to uplift us

who will argue for- take up the cause

of the oppressed of this world

of the wretched of the earth

in heaven he’ll be happy, I am certain,

to meet again, to chat and to laugh

with Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire.

OBEDIAH SMITH

Blantyre, Malawi.

November 26, 2016.