"The Passage" by Sylvia Hamilton
We had our own names
a past a present.
We worked we loved.
Sang songs to the wind
prayed to our Gods.
We did not know the future
would not be ours
We fought. And we fought
And when we were spent
terrors, like a buzz of locusts
invaded our sleep, night terrors,
not chased away by the morning sun,
night terrors stalking us.
And when we went crazy with pain
sinking into the dank water, blood
rushing from the hole in our chests
still the terrors danced on our bodies,
waiting, waiting to overtake the next ones –
shackled below on the Severn in full sail
behind us.
The sons of darkness stole our children’s tomorrow.