Boat of Horror
I hear the moans and cries of my neighbor next to me
Tied down on this boat of death
Where are we going?
Taken against our will
Towards a place of unspeakable cruelty
Our families, our homes, our lives
Taken away from us
Why?
Lie in filth and sicknesses
Tied in chains in the bottom of a boat
Little food, rats, feces, and filth
Slaves to these people
We sing our hymns
Quietly at first
Then it passes along to
Our brothers down the rows
And suddenly we are all one
From many different tribes
We are all brothers
In our singing
Until they tell us to
“Shut up”
The ones who don’t
Are punished
They take away all that we have
Even the one thing we all have in common
Our hymns
Why?
Why do we endure such torture
For doing nothing?
They call us savages
These people with light skin
Who are they to bind us Innocent
Take the babies away from the mothers
And will we ever see our families
Again?
No, no they say no
They say we are their property now
We are human too
We are human too!
And they call us savage
Who beat the women and children
For not working hard enough
In the sweltering heat
But who is savage?
They say we are stupid and
Do not allow us to learn
But we do anyway
They take our names
And give us new names
They take our religion and
Give us a new one
But we still worship
Our way
We yearn for our home
And our children’s children
Will do the same
But we pray
That one day they can
Go home again
Or at least be
Able to stand on both our feet
Copyright © Rochelle Jackson | Year Posted 2011
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