William Heath

Riviera Maya

Here we are in paradise, 
Maya style, under a thatched 
umbrella beside a huge pool 
sprawling under palm trees 

from waterfall to waterfall, 
artificial, of course, yet pleasant 
to duck inside and watch 
through a cascading skein 

the world wade by. God did not 
create all bodies in swimwear equal. 
Though food is at the core of 
the trouble, we picture Adam and Eve 

as being in tip-top shape, yet 
their progeny goes their own way 
and now a crowd is lined up 
at the all-you-can-eat buffet. 

Raccoon-related coatí have the run 
of the place, ringed tails on high, 
pointy snouts to the ground, 
I mistake them for anteaters. 

One jumps on the patio railing, 
walks over to where Roser sits, 
brushes a tail across her cheek, 
then slips back onto the grass.  

Our shuttle driver steering his 
six-seat cart on a banyan-shaded 
path of paradise, tells Roser
to fasten her seat belt.

She searches but can’t find it. 
“I am just kidding,” he says. 
“I want to make you smile. 
A smile is a vitamin.” 

William Heath has published five poetry books: The Walking Man, Steel Valley Elegy, Going Places, Alms for Oblivion, Prime Time; three chapbooks, Night Moves in Ohio, Leaving Seville, Inventing the Americas; three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led (winner of the Hackney Literary Award), Blacksnake’s Path, and Devil Dancer; a work of history, William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest (winner of two Spur Awards and the Oliver Hazard Perry Award); and a collection of interviews, Conversations with Robert Stone. In 2023 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Hiram College. He and his wife Roser Caminals, a Catalan novelist, live in Annapolis. www.williamheathbooks.com