Carib

the travel guide in the caribbean
reminds you that these islands were once
someone else's
they're dead now
even the cannibals
and in a way
everyone dies in the caribbean
if they stay too long
if not
why does everyone look so old
beyond themselves
except for the pale imperialists
who visit once or twice a year
to sit under the canopies
of their tiled roofs
drinking gin
looking down at the channel
boats gliding past the old plantations
where they killed
the slaves