The Age of Phillis. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
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prayers.
The ship sailed on its way.
No funerals.
The ship sailed on its way.—
Here is where I leave
those sailors and owners,
and you can forget
about a happy ending.
I know you want one,
twenty-first-century-style.
A soundtrack. Some ruffled
costumes. An uprising,
since there were plenty
of those, the cutting
open of white sailors
and captains of ships,
such as the mutinies
on the Henry, the Neptunis,
the Ferris Galley, the Brome,
the Meeriman, the Little George,
the Hope, the William, the Felicity,
the Thames, the Mary,
and the Jolly Bachelor—
but this did not happen
aboard The Zong when
the murder of Africans
began: the last group
of victims leapt overboard
to their death, when they knew
what was coming—
and whether the owners
lost their insurance
case or won, the Africans
of The Zong drank salt
at the bottom of the ocean,
and millions of others
were enslaved.
How can anything
erase that choking?
Water and time cannot
bury The Zong, and neither
can a moving picture.
My sleep is haunted
by chains and catalogs,
and I don’t give one damn
if you grow tired of hearing
about slavery.
I will curse sailors and
their willful, seafaring tales.
Celebrations of Poseidon
throwing tridents.
His bare, pale chest:
wet dream of the canon—
I’ll chant of murder
trailing through my nightmares,
so that blood splashes
when Spirits strut.
Don’t you know that
drowned folks will rise
to croon signs to me?
And anyway, I didn’t tell
this story to please you.
I built this altar for them.
FOUND POEM: DETENTION #2
Michael Brice-Saddler, reporting for the Washington Post, December 15, 2018
The 7-year-old
Guatemalan girl
who died in U.S.
Border Patrol
custody was healthy
before she arrived,
and her family is now
calling for an
“objective
and thorough”
investigation
into her death,
a representative
for the family
said Saturday.
In a statement,
the family’s attorneys
disputed reports
that the girl,
Jakelin Caal,
went several
days without
food and water
before crossing
the border,
which contradicts
statements
by the Department
of Homeland
Security.
… Jakelin’s death
was announced
Thursday by U.S.
Customs and
Border Protection
after inquiries by the
Washington Post,
raising questions
about the conditions
of their facilities …
CBP and Department
of Homeland Security
officials deny
that the agency
is responsible
for what
happened
to the girl.
The Trump
Administration
has also denied
responsibility
for her death.
Book: After
TO BE SOLD
A parcel of likely Negroes imported from Africa,
Cheap for Cash, or Credit with Interest; enquire
of John Avery at his House, next Door to the white
Horse, or at the Store adjoining to said Avery’s Distill
House, at the South End, near the South Market:—Also
if any Persons have any Negroe Men, strong and hearty,
tho’ not of the best moral Character, which are proper
Subjects for Transportation, may have an Exchange
for small Negroes.
— Boston-Gazette and Country Journal, August 3, 1761
Father of mercy, ’twas thy gracious hand
Brought me in safety from those dark abodes.
— Phillis Wheatley, from “To the University of Cambridge, in New-England”
Nine years kept secret in the dark abode,
Secure I lay, conceal’d from man and God:
Deep in a cavern’d rock my days were led;
The