My body buckles
Standing at the Door of No Return
In the House of Slaves
On Gorée Island
Spirit crushed by the weight of chains
Breath suspended       I can’t breathe  

Soul rocks back and forth  
Listening to the dirges’       guttural moans
Of my ancestors
As they walked through the portal
Bloodied backs
Cracked open   leather whips
Branded buttocks   backs   faces  chests 
With hot irons       skin sizzling

Not a door leading to
A pathway of hope                     
                But
A door that ripped nursing babies from their mothers’ milk
A door that castrated the humanity of the African diaspora
A door that stripped enslaved Africans of their language      sama ruu dafa metti            
              A door of damnation           A door of profit  

I gaze across the vast Atlantic Ocean   
A watery grave for two million    

Those who survived the Atlantic Slave Trade
Arrived on these ghastly shores
Iron shackles on wrists   ankles
Metal collars with spikes     bells  
Placed around necks like wild canines  

This is the sordid history    AmeriKKKan history