slaves for sale: auction today

Authors note: As a writer and a poet I believe I have an obligation to bring light into the dark corners of human existence. I do not and will not ever accept the dominion of evil over the goodness that is possible when people refuse to accept hopelessness. Please visit d’Verse Open Link Night for more poets at the pub.

“The Middle Passage remains a stain upon the waters”

to see, to touch the past, is, unfortunately
impossible
even a headstone
a shackle, a slave cabin upon the fertile soil of the Delta does
not
does not reach out and throttle the now
but…
however,
a picture, of an ancestor, a stern slave holder
who raped your great-great-great grandmother
that, that creates a churning acid reaction, all the
more potent
for being two centuries later
in the abstract, chickens and cows and Negroes
as property,
tabulated economics fueling westward expansion
labor needed here
laborers, in abundance here
here,
being Africa, there
being the Americas,
both North and South of the equatorial demarcation
and not all black skinned at that,
poor white indentured
slaves as well
but…
however,
demand -i.e. White planters and the Five Civilized Tribes in the South,
White merchants and whalers in the North
Iberian hidalgos, descendants of conquistadors
spread like molasses across a continent
they all met supply in the
warring Black rulers of Africa
the Arab traders shifting from local dhows to cargo
more profitable than
rum and sugar and ivory and gems
Dutch and English, American and Portuguese,
a trail of blood chumming the Triangular Trade,
French wine and Liberté
Highland wool and Spanish steel
all profited, all suffered
the records of Lloyd’s in London,
deeds of transfers scoured
seeking names not recorded
births not celebrated
marriages not sanctified
cultures destroyed and yet
out of the perished millions there arose
jazz
creole
rap
a pride in being black
being a victim, no longer enough
yes, this marks the resting place of a slave and
yes
this is my ancestor, my family, my tragedy, my heritage
my land
my history
my right
my duty to look at the past and say that the
Middle Passage
never ended
never began
that slavery remains an ever present evil under heaven
in America
in India
in Thailand
in North Korea
in every single country
evil men and women
enslave others
while we blithely consume products made by slaves
and look away with disinterest