This is recorded at the Baltimore Museum of Art Sculpture Garden. Baltimore is a complex, wonderful city. I met my now husband here. My first book was published while I was living and teaching here. So this poem encapsulates all the things that are beautiful and difficult about this city. The glaring red Domino Sugar Factory sign stands so prominently on the harbor, it's hard not to reflect on its greater implications. My father was a factory worker for years, so his appearance was pretty natural. Of course, Celia shows up because of Cuba's complex relationship to the sugar trade, and their connection to the slave trade.

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Poet and journalist Celeste Doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields, American Herstory (an award-winning chapbook), and editor of the poetry anthology Not Without Our Laughter. Her work has appeared in multiple on-line and print publications including Ms. Magazine, The Rumpus, The Millions, Huffington Post, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Asheville Poetry Review among others. She’s been a professor of creative writing for over a decade and will be poetry faculty at the Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway in 2021.