Paradise is not on Paria
as Christopher Columbus believed
… most lovely country, as green and beauteous
as the gardens of Valencia in March …
… mildest weather and the fields and foliage
like April in the gardens of Valencia …
Nor
on Antigua where the temperature doesn’t go higher than 80º
and the swimming is just perfect, and there’s electricity
and no malaria, and there are three golf courses
nor on Grenada, free of tropical diseases and hurricanes
with tennis courts, golf and a nightclub
nor
on Saint Lucia
paradise of painters and photographers
nor on Cayman Island (tax free)
where you can still hunt for pirate treasure
and live in a hotel for $6 a day.
No. It doesn’t come through the Tourist Agencies.
You have been saying ever since Calvary:
“today you will be with me in Paradise …”
And it isn’t Tobago
only 7 hours from New York
A MODERATELY PRICED TROPICAL PARADISE
where a couple can live on $2000 a year
in a bungalow by the sea, with electricity and radio
among guavas coco palms mangos exotic flowers
and rum is cheap, and you don’t spend money on clothes
because you can always wear shorts and teeshirts
Nor the Virgin Islands (British)
“a perfect paradise
except for the inconvenience of not having a dentist”
But I know Paradise
it isn’t the one from the Tourist Agencies
Paradise is where you and I are together.
