We Wait
We wait,
Under water we wait.
Slaves of the past life
Hands cold, joined together
No more from shackles but out of habit
Eyes vacant;
Dried of tears, drained of fear
Yet we keep them shut and we wait.


Waves wash over us
Flooding our minds with memories
Memories of decades and decades of tears
Years of suffering
Suffering that began in our land


Memories of how they came,
The masters from the strange land
With things so strange, we had never imagined
And with the promise to take us to their land far away
The crack of whips still fresh on my back
The look on the master’s face, clear in my mind
As I refuse to scrub the deck the seventh time with knuckles bleeding
My muscles tense, recalling the struggle that ensued afterwards
My feet are off the ground
As my brothers lift me up at the master’s command
At his order, I am thrown overboard
The cold waters welcome me,
Pulling me down
Only one thought on my mind
That finally at the sea’s depth I’m free


My eyes are closed in thought
My hands recall her lifeless form
My belly protruding from the nine months of harbouring her
I had hoped she would stay
But like the two before her she refused
Every night with sore knees from scrubbing the deck
I’d wait, wait for death to take me
My bare feet hardly touching the hard wood floor
As I leapt
Over the ship’s rail into the cold welcoming waters with a splat
The sea whispering softly and soothing me
While she pulls me to her bottom
Here I’m free
Still I wait.


We wait
Underwater we wait
For what?
We are not sure
Our journey above water cut short
Our eyes never to see the Massa’s land
The scars on our back a distant memory
Our hands and ankles barely remember the cold touch of the metal shackles
Underwater free and at peace
We wait.


Ok so I saw a picture of this underwater sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor and decided to write this...out of boredom I guess. Check out his website http://www.underwatersculpture.com/index.asp