Art: from the Connection Series by C.A.T aka Chaos and Thread, @chaosandthread
CONTOUR
I removed chastity from my brain
Allowing my mind free range. Foraging,
I surrender to my true love, erudition.
It hasn’t been easy, the rigor of flipping
Pages, venturing cultural turfs while
Penetrating the foliage of contention.
My stressed body wants to rest, shaded
Underneath acacia trees. Wafting breezes.
I see the sea, and I’m not chasing white
Whales. Killing off the nourishing sphere
Where water is the primordial component.
I am an element of elements, and must learn
That I cannot continue walking on the rim
Of extinction while flashing million dollar
Smiles of witlessness. The world is not for
The G7 that exterminates for ore, oil and grains.
I removed chastity in order to bond
With my agency. My future is assayed.
My only asset is earth, and my mind quarries
For life’s gems and not the atoms in the crevasses.
About the author:
Patrick Sylvain is a poet, writer, social critic, and photographer. Published in several scholarly and creative anthologies, journals and reviews, including: African American Review, Agni, Allegro Poetry Magazine, American Poetry Review, Anchor Magazine, Callaloo, Caribbean Writers, Transition, The Savannah Review, Dirty Chai, Ploughshares, SX Salon, Vallum Contemporary Poetry, Haiti Noir, International Journal of Language and Literature, Human Architecture, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. Sylvain’s academic essays are anthologized in several edited collections, including: “The Idea of Haiti: Rethinking Crisis and Development,” edited by Millery Polyné; “Politics and Power in Haiti,” edited by Paul Sutton and Kate Quinn; and “Haiti Noir” edited by Edwidge Danticat. Sylvain received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, in Political Science and Social-Psychology, and earned his Ed.M. as a Conant Fellow from Harvard University Graduate School of Education; and was also a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow at Boston University Creative Writing Department where he earned his MFA. He has taught at several universities, including Brown (where is affiliated with Africana Studies), Mass/Boston (Anthropology) and Harvard (AAAS). Sylvain is pursuing a Ph.D. in English at Brandeis University where he is the Shirle Dorothy Robbins Creative Writing Prize Fellow.
Art: From the Connection Series, C.A.T aka Chaos and Thread, @chaosandthread
