A day when the sky in sudden thunder thinned the air
I said: Do you see them with that pale white skin?
We were face down in the sand, then in shackles. We heard
screams. I felt the blow to my head
We walked in chained formation like captured birds forced down
to the river to the boat to the ship
Tears sickness death in darkness in everlasting stench in chains
hanging
From our feet our wrist our neck from night to day to night to day
Where were Simba and Faloney? They had been
Near Tah’Rack but now they were never coming back. I covered my mouth
The whip cracked the gun smoked we fell
Into hell over the edge more kin more blood. Screams mocked the crows
But no one knows where
We were going. And I see land. We were dirty hunger black and blue
We were slapped kicked thrown into cages
100, 200, 300 – 4. Our skin bought and sold to places called our “home”
Beaten. Raped. Names changed. Tears useless
Men women children swinging from trees becoming
food for vultures. 400 years later after emancipation
After war upon this nation, after brainwash and torture, they grinned
while we grieved.
It’s 2020 but there are still shackles
for our wrists and sacks for our backs.
We really should be careful while walking driving swimming
Or just being Black.
Doreen Williams graduated from Medgar Evers College with Public Administration Degree. She is currently employed at Medgar Evers College. She is a lover of music and a proud grandmother of seven. A Brooklyn Girl Forever!
