The Island Within

“The Island Within” begins as the speaker remembers an image from the previous night at Ruth Behar’s house. The speaker compares the porch light to “a full moon casting a foggy halo / in the frigid air” (Lines 2-3), emphasizing a juxtaposition of light and darkness. Blanco extends the image of the dark, cold night for several lines, citing the “bare oaks / branching into the sky like nerve endings” (Lines 3-4) and the “frozen stars” (Line 5), drawing attention to the cold temperatures of Michigan and introducing a feeling of entrapment in Line 6: “the pink gables of your Victorian home / protesting yet another winter for you / captive in Ann Arbor” (Lines 6-8). The word “captive” (Line 8) rings out as the first word of Line 8, characterizing Behar’s living situation as one that she has not chosen for herself. Life in America, where Behar is separated from her Cuban upbringing and her cultural roots, feels like a form of imprisonment.

The speaker draws the reader into the living room of the house with the use of the present progressive tense: “I’m following / your red-velvet shoes” (Lines 9-10). This shift to the immediate moment indicates a change in the tempo of the poem as the speaker describes Behar as “[practicing] / mambo by the fireplace” (Line 9) and dancing to the “conga beats / and bongo taps” (Lines 10-11), and this cold, winter night comes alive with the heat of Cuban dance.

The tone of the poem shifts again, however; the speaker suggests that though the dancing and music might transport Behar’s memories momentarily back to her home country, she is, in reality, “1,600 miles / away from Cuba” (Lines 13-14). The speaker feels transported by the taste of the “cafecito” (Line 14) and “the slice of homemade flan / floating in burnt sugar” (Lines 15-16), but when the speaker describes the stories Behar “can’t finish writing / no matter how many times [she] [travels] / through time back to Havana” (Lines 17-19), a sense of wistful longing accompanies the powerful taste imagery of coffee and caramel. Both flavors evoke pain and pleasure, so bitterness and sweetness mingle in terms of both taste and emotion. After all, Behar did not leave Cuba because she wanted to, and the final line of the first stanza references “every memory ever stolen from you” (Line 20).

The second stanza opens with a striking accusation when the speaker addresses Behar and calling her “a thief anyone would forgive” (Line 21). The comparison of Behar to a thief extends the metaphor of stealing the speaker introduces in Line 20. Behar steals memories from the past because she wants to experience a link with her past and with her family. In Lines 22-30, the speaker uses a list to cite all the memories that Behar would have if the experience of exile had not stolen them from her; if Behar had not had to leave Cuba, the invented memories of her family members would be rightfully hers.

The speaker lists Behar’s memories in intimate detail, implying that the speaker of the poem and Behar must be very close friends in order for the speaker to understand the significance of these particular memories. The speaker lists the following places and events: “walk on Calle Aguacate / and pretend to meet the grandfather / you never met at his lace shop for lunch, / or pray the Kaddish like your mother / at the synagogue in El Vedado” (Lines 24-28). The specificity of detail and place of these lines portrays the speaker’s deep connection with Behar. Finally, the speaker completes the list with a final image that illustrates Behar’s desire to “stand / on the steps there like you once did / in a photo you can’t remember taking” (Lines 28-30). Ironically, in this moment, Behar’s memory fails her even though there is a photo to document the instance the speaker describes.

In Line 31, the tone of the poem dramatically shifts again as the speaker turns inward and focuses on the self. Here, the speaker introduces the image of the island, which is the major metaphor and titular image of the poem. The speaker “confess[es] I pitied you, still trying to reach / that unreachable island within the island / you still call home” (Lines 31-33), and the mention of pity separates his own experience from that of Behar. From the speaker’s point of view, Behar has not yet let go of her attachment to Cuba, and she still seeks this concept of “home” (Line 33) represented by Cuban culture and the past. While sympathizing with Behar, the speaker suddenly realizes that this evening spent drinking “cafecito,” (Line 14) dancing “mambo” (Line 9) and eating “homemade flan” (Line 15) actually awakens memories within himself, and his feelings of pity for Behar grow to include a feeling a self-pity that reunites the speaker with his subject as he reflects on his own experience: “I thought I was done / with Cuba, tired of filling in the blanks, / but now I’m not sure” (Lines 32-35).

As the poem concludes, the speaker travels back to Cuba in his memory, employing present tense to mark a change in the framing of the poem. Up to this point, the speaker uses the past tense to emphasize the role of memory; now, the speaker engages with his own memory in a more direct way: “Maybe if I return / just once more,” (Lines 35-36), the speaker states, to his own memories of Cuba and childhood. The speaker wants to “walk the sugarcane fields / my father once cut, drive down the road / where my mother once peddled guavas / to pay for textbooks” (Lines 36-39), and the use of the present tense emphasizes the immediacy and suddenness of his desire and longing. All of the speaker’s memories have to do with a sense of place and with his family members, like his grandfather, father, and mother, who gather on his grandmother’s porch, where the speaker imagines “her / still in the kitchen making arroz-con-leche–” (Lines 40-41), a traditional Cuban dessert. More taste imagery brings this memory alive for the speaker as the real-time flavors of coffee and flan give way to his memory of his grandmother’s rice pudding.

Blanco ends the poem with a question: “Would you / move to Cuba? Would you die there?” (Lines 43-44). The italics draw special attention to Behar’s question, one that neither the speaker nor Behar can answer as they sift through their memories of the country of their birth, culture, and identity. While both characters can return to Cuba in their memories, they return to a place that no longer exists, which enhances the sense of isolation that gives the metaphor of the island its strength. Cuba, and its accompanying sense of home, is an “unreachable island within the island / you still call home” (Lines 32-33). The poem ends with an unanswered question as no easy answer can exist in the context of hazy memory and its role in everyday existence.