On Other Continents
you guys are mixed, he said:
mixed with what, I said; obviously
he’d read my claim: divided to the vein;
où avez-vous appris le français?
Back home, I said: a convent: You?
Welcome Brother, long have I sought you –
Arrivants: we kiss cheeks thrice, masked the same,
set to scavenge slim phenotypic spoils
who would sell the other first -
a sail is a sale is yet a dirty sale
this vast value village’s cold -
though self-exiled we still need muffs, boots,
joseph’s coats, no frills - food: basics;
our curse’s genesis is close yet distant -
quintessentially human, yet recurrently man-made
About Cynthia James:
Cynthia James is a Trinidadian, living for the past 3 years in Toronto. She writes poetry and fiction and her work can be found in publications such as Callaloo, Caribbean Writer and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse
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