The Bloodied Patriot

The ibis bleeds as red

As the glimmer atop the melting tallow,

And just as the poui bloom,

So do the ashes bind to the farmyard's fallow.

The hermits recoil in whorls

To the aged thalidomide smell,

Til high tides exorcise the night,

Along with nightly hauntings quelled.

The lake bleeds as black

As the umbral spectre of our preamble.

And just as the brown girl circles the ring

So do her knees buck and tremble.

Carpet beetles make their feast,

They bite through old pairs of boots

And they notice the sweatstains and mud

Are tinctured with sugar and cane juice.

I wished to bleed as white

As white as the colour of things clean.

Unlike the roots of our rancour,

And a dusty portrait of the Caribbean scene:

"A dirty coconut, sliced with a rusted cutlass

By a blistered man near some sun-dried grass."

I wished to bleed as white,

As white as the colour of things preferred,

As I falsely thought I was in the dark,

As so many dreams deferred.

-----

Kevin Jared Hosein was born and raised in the Caribbean island state Trinidad and Tobago. He is a writer and poet who has worked on his craft since his teenage years. In 2009, he penned a poem entitled "The Wait is So, So Long" that would go on to be adapted as a short film that would be featured and win a Gold Key Award at the NY-based Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Although he is currently employed as a Biology and Physics secondary school teacher, he writes everyday to have a significant body of work, to build discipline and to create his own voice and style in the world of West Indian literature.