they say I was trouble

my fingernails grow long
like my father’s

my teeth sharp
like my uncle’s
cutlass chopping
all he wife’s
pigeon peas trees

my tongue know the bitter
hot leather after a flogging

my spirit uneasy
with all them laying of hands

 

∞

amílcar peter sanatan is an interdisciplinary Caribbean artist, educator and activist from Trinidad and Tobago. He is an alumnus of the Cropper Foundation and Obsidian Foundation writers’ residencies and was a Promundo Writing Fellow, in addition to being a 2024 Bocas Breakthrough Fellow. His chapbook, About Kingston, was published in Port of Spain in 2025 by Peekash Press,