I Am Not Free

I work hard Back breakingly hard I am not paid A lot of people got me to This new world Both foreign looking And ones who’s skin glistened In the sun And was as dark as me I will never forget The pains of crossing that ocean Till my confinement in squalor I had never seen so much water How can we be treated so I wondered By people who though different Were just like me ? My wretchedness had only begun when I entered that ship Death took many on the way But grudgingly stayed far away from me He apparently didn’t feel any fraternity Humanity I threw away as I vomited On the deck of that wretched ship I found on landing no reason To suppose it would ever come back to me Work That is all I do I am a machine Machines on the estate are valuable And well looked after But I am easily replaced so I am mere fodder In the fields I toil For cane For cotton For money for the owner far away No one appreciates How dismal life can be My master gets my brother to beat me That hurts It pained me so especially As I worked with sweat flowing off my back That stung with each lash I never felt such resentment I have seen many a sun rise in this new land I was young when I arrived with So much fear in my heart I don’t remember where I came from I buried that inside me a long time ago I see new faces everyday Fresh and green and sick as I was I now laugh I am not heartless but the pain they feel Is no less intense in me now that I am the one who will show them Their new despair An inescapable despair One day I will be free I will feel my soul float over that ocean And carry me home I do hope they will remember me For I have been gone a long time Since they captured me