Tengo
I have, just wait and see,
that being black and all
no one stopping me
as bar or dance hall guest
or treading the carpet of a hotel,
shouting that there's no bed,
no minimal cell and no colossal cell,
no little cell where I might take my rest.
I have, just wait and see,
freedom from the rural overseer
who straps me up and puts me in a jail
or drags my body from its native shed
down the royal highway's helpless trail.
I have the land as well as I've the sea,
no country,
no high-life,
no tennis and no yacht,
but beach to endless waves and waves to beach,
blue and naked giant of democracy:
in short, the sea.
Books by Nicolás Guillén and/or Richard J. Carr in MOREL
Tengo
Nicolás Guillén
Tengo
Nicolás Guillén
+
Richard J. Carr
