THE PHILOSOPHIZING SLAVE

St Hope Earl McKenzie


As thirst discourses best on water,

and night is the expert on day,

so is the slave an authority on freedom.

The deepest questions

about evil, oppression and betrayal

are written on the wales on his back.

He is like a Jonah

in the belly of the seas of history.

His cane-piece is an academy

for meditations

on labour

For the benefit of his own body;

and on work

for equality, democracy and prosperity.

Yet if he learns to read

they will chop off his hand.

But he knows

that neither parliament nor throne

can bind

the liberty of his philosophizing mind.

 

St Hope Earl McKenzie taught Philosophy at the University of the West Indies, Mona. His books include Philosophy in the West Indian Novel (2009), Against Linearity (1992) and A Bluebird Named Poetry: Linked Poems, Stories and Paintings (2012). In 2000, he was awarded a Silver Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica for his contribution to Literature. This poem is from The Loneliness of a Caribbean Philosopher and Other Essays (2013).