POEM: Letters to a Friend

This poem was inspired by frustration. After several months of sending letters to a friend in Pilon (a town next door to Marea del Portillo), without receiving a response, I began to understand the shortcomings of the Cuban postal system. We eventually established intermittent e-mail correspondence.

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Letters to a Friend

There’s so much unsaid between the lines.

My thoughts tumble like stones
in the undertow of my sleepless mind
as I drift amid the blanket waves.

I want to give you each glistening stone,
plucked from this roiling surf, one by one,
and tell you what it means.

Much has been said in the letters I’ve sent.

More words on a page would say nothing new;
mere words on a page can’t fully convey
what my heart needs to say.

I want to see your eyes
as you hear my voice
when I tell you the truth
that lies between the lines;
and when I confirm
what you already know.

There’s so much unsaid.

– J.R.C.
Feb. 2, 2010