Spanish Conversation
in cuba
a dark skin woman asks me
if i’m from angola
i try to explain in the no spanish i know
that i am american
she finds this difficult to believe
at times i do too
Notes:
“Spanish Conversation” was originally published in Migrant Worker (Washington Writers’ Publishing House, 1978) and is part of the folio “E. Ethelbert Miller: Friendship Is What Keeps Us Whole.” Read the rest of the folio in the November 2025 issue of Poetry.
Source: Poetry (November 2025)