deepundergroundpoetry.com
The Queen's Steps
Deep in the heart of Nassau
There lies caverns of limestone
Built by ten thousand hands
Under the crushing whip
The limestone crevices are cracked
As the skin of their backs
Thirty meters up, the palms
Droop like their eyes
Their distant children relay to me
The history, the memory
Of suffering and slavery
Yet thanksgiving for a Queen
Who came across the sea to set them free
A 96-step staircase they built
By their newly freed souls
For her, their beloved Victoria
Washed away their guilt
And made their hearts whole
Standing in this space
Feeling cold stone
I hear the cries
I hear the moans
How can I possibly explain
The discomfort at finding
Myself at the crossroads
of beauty and agony
I stop and gaze
Upon the imposing frame
Mercilessly imbedded into the rock wall
No portrait . . .
Vacant
As the slaves' homes in the hillside.
I tremble and shake
at the horror of the institution:
A nightmare from which none wake.
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