Far Across the Atlantic

From dusk till dawn, the fields, they toiled Enduring lashes from the overseer's whip. Grimacing as the sun on them, boiled The pain, too deep for them to even weep. Heavy iron shackles impeded their footsteps Hot iron on bare skin branded them as property And while many suffered from broken biceps Others died and few in pains, reached forty. The maidens got raped by the bearded monster The children, separated and sold like sheep And while many got maimed in this order With stoicism they endured with little sleep. The Americas, my Ancestors built And like soldiers far from Rome, They sweated and died without guilt In a land they couldn't call home.. They toiled under the sun in silence Their minds, blurred by the middle passage Such hideous and appalling violence That saw thousands cast overboard during the voyage. Gathered at dusk around their candle stick, Desperation had struck some with insomnia. Families in fear clung, while the kids kick Hearing their parents voices singing in nostalgia "Home again again, home again again When shall I see my home?....." ©Temajung Michael T