✨𝓟𝓸𝓮𝓶𝓼✨

𝙿𝚘𝚎𝚖 15: 𝚁𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚝 𝙷𝚊𝚢𝚍𝚎𝚗

                                  𝙼𝚒𝚍𝚍𝚕𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚐𝚎

Jesús, Estrella, Esperanza, Mercy:

       Sails flashing to the wind like weapons,
       sharks following the moans the fever and the dying;  
       horror the corposant and compass rose.

Middle Passage:
               voyage through death
                               to life upon these shores.

       "10 April 1800—
       Blacks rebellious. Crew uneasy. Our linguist says  
       their moaning is a prayer for death,
       ours and their own. Some try to starve themselves.  
       Lost three this morning leaped with crazy laughter  
       to the waiting sharks, sang as they went under."

Desire, Adventure, Tartar, Ann:

       Standing to America, bringing home  
       black gold, black ivory, black seed.

               Deep in the festering hold thy father lies,  
               of his bones New England pews are made,  
               those are altar lights that were his eyes.

Jesus    Saviour    Pilot    Me
Over    Life's    Tempestuous    Sea

We pray that Thou wilt grant, O Lord,  
safe passage to our vessels bringing  
heathen souls unto Thy chastening.

Jesus    Saviour

       "8 bells. I cannot sleep, for I am sick
       with fear, but writing eases fear a little
       since still my eyes can see these words take shape  
       upon the page & so I write, as one
       would turn to exorcism. 4 days scudding,
       but now the sea is calm again. Misfortune
       follows in our wake like sharks (our grinning  
       tutelary gods). Which one of us
       has killed an albatross? A plague among
       our blacks—Ophthalmia: blindness—& we  
       have jettisoned the blind to no avail.
       It spreads, the terrifying sickness spreads.
       Its claws have scratched sight from the Capt.'s eyes  
       & there is blindness in the fo'c'sle
       & we must sail 3 weeks before we come
       to port."

               What port awaits us, Davy Jones'
               or home? I've heard of slavers drifting, drifting,  
               playthings of wind and storm and chance, their crews  
               gone blind, the jungle hatred
               crawling up on deck.

Thou    Who    Walked    On    Galilee

       "Deponent further sayeth The Bella J
       left the Guinea Coast
       with cargo of five hundred blacks and odd  
       for the barracoons of Florida:

       "That there was hardly room 'tween-decks for half  
       the sweltering cattle stowed spoon-fashion there;  
       that some went mad of thirst and tore their flesh  
       and sucked the blood:

       "That Crew and Captain lusted with the comeliest  
       of the savage girls kept naked in the cabins;  
       that there was one they called The Guinea Rose  
       and they cast lots and fought to lie with her:

       "That when the Bo's'n piped all hands, the flames  
       spreading from starboard already were beyond  
       control, the negroes howling and their chains  
       entangled with the flames: