And on the 7th Day God Said: “You Made it, Bro”

 
 

Their small boat tilts and dips as they jump

into the shallows and run up the beach

to applause and cheers in English and Spanish,

twelves sets of feet already drying in the sand

as they high five and hug one another

and the strangers that greet them, calling out

Bienvenidos!  Bienvenidos!  You made it, bro!

Beachgoers give them the cloths off their backs,

the cash in their pockets.  South Beach hotels

bring food and towels.  Someone asks how long

they were at sea in that rickety boat.  Sies dias,

sies dias.  Six days for the dream of a seventh.

 
 
 

Ariel Francisco is the author of All My Heroes Are Broke (C&R Press, 2017) and Before Snowfall, After Rain (Glass Poetry Press, 2016). Born in the Bronx to Dominican and Guatemalan parents, he was raised in Miami and completed his MFA at Florida International University. His poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2016, Gulf Coast, Poets.org, Prelude, Washington Square, and elsewhere. He lives in South Florida (for now).