∞
Iguana
The boys broke the clothesline formation
along the community centre bench
sprinting behind a long green tail
smelling holocaust fragrance, reptilian death.
.
Jabari was the quickest. His blood was warm
since morning when his father beat him
a fan belt to straighten his back. He grabbed
the iguana and slapped its head on the ground
.
Brap! Brap! Brap! Brap!
.
We circled on the splattered mark
the dead iguana grinned. Somewhere
I heard laughing. It wasn’t me.
I did not mourn the loss until now –
.
manhood no longer comes through hunting and stone.
∞
Amílcar Sanatan is an Instructor in the Department of Geography at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. Sanatan earned a Master of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies from the Institute for Gender and Development Studies. His poetry has appeared in the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies and Interviewing the Caribbean. Sanatan has performed spoken word poetry in his homeland, Trinidad and Tobago, for over a decade and is the current host of the spoken word open mic U.WE SPEAK and coordinator of the UWI Socialist Student Conference.