How to Make Love to a Dying Rican

1.    Remember he is still living.

2.    Remember you, too, will die.

3.    Try not to rush either.

4.    Kiss his lips full of medicine.

       Rub his back full of knots.

5.    Remember he wants you alive;

       don’t be foolish.

6.    Realize you will both become statistics.

7.    Remember the way his face looked

       in the movie he made. Remember

       it in the one you are now making.

8.    Tell him he can play any role.

9.    Inscribe in memory

       the sound of his voice, feel of

       his hands on your chest, waist,

       hips. The trace of his finger across your

       lips, yours in the recess

       of his ass.

10.  Keep rum and candy

       nearby. They keep the gods happy.

11.  Tell him you will visit

       in the next life, and this island

       will again be filled

       with trees.

12.  In the canoe of our own

       making, we travel upstream.

       Fill the hollow of his hull.

       Husk the corn from his frame.

13.  Cacique dance.

       Bless his limbs with flight