My Qoolitude is of whale bone

Abstract

In this hybrid work of prose and poetry I consider the limits of Marina Carter’s and Khal Torabully’s concept of Coolitude and reflect how I have thought about it and how it affects my own thinking as a poet. I draw from the recent scholarship of Ryan Persadie to show how queerness (a curious silence in the original text of Coolitude: An Anthology of the Indian Labour Diaspora) can erupt through juxtaposing lyric flight with narrative prose.