Tag: caribbean poets

Posted on

Like Rain

(Crocker Art Museum – Sacramento, CA –
October 2025)

I can’t live in your daydreams
there are still half-read books and half-drunk cups of coffee lingering on my shelves
unedited manuscripts begging for attention under piles of mail I promised I would open
research ideas that haven’t quite been fleshed out enough
I can’t subsist on praise and sacrifice alone
Need the warm sun, a cool breeze, and an ocean view to nourish my aching soul
I can’t live in your daydreams but I can be a featured player in your fantaisies
Call on me when the well runs dry
I’ll be there to flood your fields

Posted on

I don’t really understand astrology.

the universe is
an endless mystery
but people are all made up
of blood, bones
sinew and regrets
maybe it’s my scorpio rising
or my sagittarius moon talking
but it all just feels like
any other mythology
filling our great and desperate desire
to ascribe some reason to being
still, I’ll let you
tell me what my birth chart says
if it means I can
trace the outline of your body
without using my hands

Posted on

Anvéwité

(Christiansted, St. Croix, USVI – January 2024)

They taught us that the natives were all dead,
That indigenous islanders were long extinct.
Wiped out by European diseases, lack of weapons, poor luck.
But we know our ancestors, we know our histories.

They insisted that our minds were inferior,
Yet the “great nations” of the world were each built on our forced labor,
And when we claimed our freedom for ourselves, we became doctors, lawyers, architects, writers.

They claimed Kwéyòl wasn’t as good as French,
Et anvéwité, they were right about that at least – it’s richer, much more complex.
It’s the rough colonizer tongue, blanketed in the pure beauty of African and Carib languages. A shining example of our diverse heritage.

They’ll try to teach you false narratives about yourself, about the world,
Whether they intend to or not.
To survive this indignity, stand firm in your reality,
And stay one step ahead.

Posted on

do you love me?

(Pacifica Esplanade Beach, CA – December 2023)

est-ce que tu m’aimes?

tongue dripping with silver,

kisses all over your body like Paris rain in the afternoon.

est-ce que tu m’aimes?

touch like the summer – wet, hot, unrelenting,

and enrapturing you all at once,

until every inch of you is soaked in sweat.

est-ce que je suis le diable?

peut-être, peut-être pas

est-ce que tu m’aimes, encore?

Posted on

Je me suis trouvé

pas besoin de raconter l’histoire,
je sais précisément qui je suis et où j’ai commis une erreur.
feuilletant Dostoïevski, allongé au soleil,
fumeur au Young Dolph, l’herbe fraîchement coupée effleurant mes coudes nus.
descendant dégénéré, dissident et perdu de vue de Ramsès II, bien que très loin des villes scintillantes de l’Égypte antique.

pas besoin de rejouer vos souvenirs,
je sais exactement où je suis allé et où j’en suis,
aucune indiscrétion passée ne me fait honte, aucune menace de mal de la part d’un homme ne me met en échec,
aucune chaînes d’entreprise pas m’apprivoiser.
ma voix est forte et claire comme le bruit des vagues qui s’écrasent sur le rivage,
Je suis un enfant de l’été, élevé dans la nature.

Je me suis perdu une fois,
mais maintenant…

Continue reading “Je me suis trouvé”