Hold My Hand

Still exploring my writing

Bodies cramped together like sardines in a tin,
The air is filled with the unbearable stench of stale sweat
Evaporating from the hot dark bodies.
Parched feces clay the ground,
Corrupting the atmosphere.
Each breath is poison to the lungs,
But one must fight to live,
For life will seek a purpose through the darkest of places.
Sweat, blood, soil,
Legs, arms shackled to iron poles.
Glittering clammy African bodies crying out in agony;
Hunger filled stomachs pumping nothingness through exhausted muscles.
Hopeless souls looking out of vacant eyes.
Empty women violated, raped;
Young girls plucked out of their virginity.
Pounding hearts eager to be free from
This prison,
This trap,
This injustice.
The day is dark,
And with it masked men with pretentious deeds;
Plundering life's only inheritance.
Violating the source of countless cultures.
Destroying the seed of my African brothers.
Mindsets twisted into inferiority complexes.
500 years of captivity and lost sense of direction.

We are what we are,
We are what we want to be,
We are powerful beyond measure!
Somehow we have forgotten to affirm these qualities to ourselves.
We are an African people
Scattered,
Shredded.
But all you need to do is,
Hold MY hand
Hold HER hand
Hold HIS hand
Lead
Follow
We will get there...