And so into the Middle Passage

An ocean crossing, cruel beyond belief

Where murdered Africans, in millions

Quietly lie b’neath the furious waves

Of the cold, shark-filled Atlantic

For centuries a watery grave, fathoms deep

For the discarded dead and the too ill to bring rewards

For the waiting elites in Bristol, Nantes, Cadiz, and Lisbon

Ensconced on terra firma Europeannica

Satiated and grown fat, like the vipers they were

On the blood, sanguine, and tears, lacryma, and the sweat, sudor

From the millions upon millions of Africans in suffering

Their souls tortured, spirits shattered, minds in limbo

And still the waves and the sharks afeast

On their share of

The white man’s shame