Are stained white.
Black ink declared
All men to be equal but
Spines, rigged like chains,
Choked other limbs:
Feathered men
Replaced.
These vessels have knowledge
Where the sea ends.
Drains in Port of Spain
Flow where blue blood
Opens worlds.
•••
Andre Bagoo was born and lives in Trinidad. A journalist, he writes for Newsday and has published poems and book reviews in journals like the Boston Review, Caribbean Review of Books and St Petersburg Review. This is a poem from his first book of poems, Trick Vessels, which is published by Shearsman Books (http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2012/bagoo.html).
tongues of the ocean 