Confession

Kanyinsola Anifowoshe

My lips moving in silence.

Silence. Blackbird’s cry
a knife, splitting the sky in two.

Scythe slashing wheat, dry,
and light, which sanctifies

the land, fading to ̇winter.
I bend at the waist to gather

as Angelus bells begin to toll.
That harsh pleasure

rings through the body.
It doesn’t stop sounding.

I buckle there on blackened
earth. Tongue tracing, tolling,

field of thistle, tolling, stone
cool against my skin, tolling,

still, tolling, I need it
to be known. After the sky,

shadows. Before the earth,
breeze stirring the wheat.

Father, what can I tell you
that is not already yours?

Kanyinsola Anifowoshe is a curator and writer based in New Haven, CT. Through curatorial work and public programming, Kanyinsola has sought to critically examine and celebrate Black women’s intergenerational and historically marginalized artistic legacies.

ABOUT THE ART | Familial Entanglement by Chiara Hardy, 2024. Chiara Hardy is a student at Yale University.