Get out of the fire of hypocrisy
from the edge of barefoot verse
Look for an avenue to throw down these necessities
and don't delay on the threshold of pearls and rain.
Enter like a shooting star.
Break the protocol
and teach the remnants of your soul
chained to the last collection of poems.
None will dare call you a marionette, wretch or fool
You will be - for ever more - safe
from gloomy reflections
from voices from beyond the grave
from the threads that support the mask
Escape from falsity and heaviness
At the end of the passage there is a door.
Escape this minute.
Before nightfall.
Before they trap you again
and force you to howl like a goat
or to jump like a fool.
- Jorge Olivera Castillo
translated by Cat Lucas
Continue reading Cuba joins China, Iran and Burma as the Great Jailer of writers ....