By Angela Michele Counts © 2009 Commissioned by Myrtle Street Baptist Church, in Newton Massachusetts in commemoration of their 135th anniversary and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Performed in 5 Voices... Part I ~ The Waves… The waves so restless now, Tossing us about, confused This same ocean I knew Since youth, and his eyes too And now, I can’t look. His eyes, the same as mine. Panic, they look away. The same, Dark, ocean we belong. Only now, terror: the smells That we did not know. So Close together. The shame I never knew; his leg Crossed with mine, and hers too. Somebody’s arm bloodied. She fell, We smell, each other, Our humanity. Who are these Devils, the ones with greedy teeth? What did we do, and Now can it be undone? Part II ~ The Ship and the Land… The wench, that one o’er there. Grab her, and the child. Wild, yes they are wild But they will work hard If they know who is Master. The slave and the mule can Be beaten into submission, And neither will work again, Perhaps, but the o...
Film and Video | Creative Writing | Non-Fiction and Performance