The Day 28 challenge is to write a prose poem.  I have chosen to use growing up on the Naval base in Cuba for a while as the base of the poem.

Swimming With Iguanas
by Michael Romani

We were only kids then.  Growing up on the northern end.
We had no clue what life was about.  But lived it happily
And to the fullest.  We were only kids then.  Growing up on
A naval base at the northern end of Cuba.  It seemed we spent
Half our time in the water and half the time being told
There was a shortage of water.  Told to conserve as our
Parents served.  We did that and didn't really mind
Content instead with all the things we would find.  Wandering 
around in our spaces and knowing our places.  We were only
kids then.

Thinking back on the time that we were all at Windmill Beach.
A place with more rocks than sand and there was that other 
Beach we loved so much.  The one with the eels on the bottom
Reaching up like some sort of grotesque garden of upright
snake like fish that scared us as we swam by.  Scarier still
Were the moments that the marine iguanas told us who lived
There first and chased us off through the water. Who knew
that they were protecting their mating territories right?
We were only kids then. Swimming with iguanas.  But, you know
We were only kids then.

We were only kids then.  Forging friendships that would last
Last a lifetime and maybe longer cause our bonds have grown
stronger as time as gone by.  Gone by so fast.  It seems only
A blink since we were only kids then.  One by one, we start
To live broken heart to broken heart as we embrace the pain
And see our friends leave this sphere of existence.  Despite
all resistance.  No one gets out alive.  And we love and 
Forgive those we once swam with, fought with, lived and died
for.  We were only kids then.  But man, did we ever love to
explore.  We spent more time outside than in except to sleep
And the bonds we grew were strong and deep enough to last
To last a life time.  We were only kids then.  But, we
would be what we could be and should be and though we were only
kids then.  We grew up a community of friends like extended
family.  We are ohana.  This is what I've seen since the days when
We were only kids then...

(c) April 28, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved