Haitian baptism in Biscayne Bay

SURVIVORS: SUNDAY MORNING


The manta ray soared from the bay
To see a fundamental baptism:
White cotton pleated on black bodies
Dipping in the saltwater--
In the devilfish's home--
As if the brine could preserve their faith.

Eastern roared jets overhead;
Fishermen chugged out for prey;
Sirens bleated along the causeway
While the congregation sang,
"Jesu, Jesu" to the mullets' play,
Their frenzied early hunger feeding.

This week's microwaved news exposed
One alive after a plane fell on Reno,
Thirty Jews returned to Auschwitz,
Vietnam POWs regurgitated, and
Live hostages reading from cue cards.

I watched the new Christians
Who had lived long enough to be saved.
In this brimming, gritty city
Where decay and brutality smear
Their filthy hands on its shirtfront,
The survivors are the true heroes.

February 1985


"Survivors: Sunday Morning" was first published in the poetry collection City Magic,1987.  The book can be special ordered through Spellbound Books, Homestead, Florida .

I arrived in South Florida to work and live in late 1980.  A few years later, I had rented a second-story apartment with a balcony overlooking Biscayne Bay.  I lived there for two years and found the view and ambience fertile stimulation for my imagination.  One Sunday morning I awoke to the chant of "Jesu, Jesu" and discovered that off the 79th Street causeway, Haitian protestants had assembled and were baptizing new members of their congregation in Biscayne Bay.  I sat on my balcony, drank coffee, and watched.  At that moment, a large manta ray rose out of the bay nearby and mullet started leaping.  The poem began percolating.

I titled the book City Magic for a couple reasons: 63 percent of the poems are directly about Miami and most of the rest were inspired while I lived on the bay; Miami's nickname is "The Magic City"; and during the time I lived on the bay, several books were published about Miami: Miami: City of the Future by T.D.Allman and Miami by Joan Didion.  That time was also the heyday of the television program Miami Vice (Miami Vice: The Complete Series).  My friend Bhava had a couple bit roles in the series and encouraged me to audition, but I told him no, it wasn't for me.