A Rock A Hard Place

caught between honeys
for 12 ozs. of honey
imported from the U.S.A.
for which I must pay
between 5 and 6 dollars,
I can purchase for a-dollar-ten
in the airport in Havana
where you’d find
their steepest prices

I gave as gifts,
all six I returned with

caught between honeys,
between the prices of them,
what’s left for me to do
but to fill my hands in Starbucks
with honey to leave with

as expensive as their coffee is
the price of honey, I snatch and carry
seems factored in already

I must sneak to get away with
little plastic packets of honey
while they can, without a gun,
in broad daylight, take my money


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
3:56 a.m. 10/11/07