“Why Don’t We Cry in Slave Dungeons”
They’re eeery, they’re Dark,
Cold concrete with no spark
Patriarchally erected by demons
With no hearts and no souls
Can’t cry in these places
Where they raped us for gold
My tears become crystals
And EYE create some new stairs
I climb to the glory, Those stories I’ll share
Because The place for MY Ancestors
Was NEVER in here
These dungeons were not built for US
They built them for themselves
These Rooms with no light
These rooms Filled with no air
These places are hellholes
THEY BELONG HERE
They shackled our bodies, Filled us with fear
Pure Evil I tell you!
I can’t waste my waters in here
I cry in places that are worthy of my tears
Here my dread become Locs, I spit, I pour
and I say Ase’
Written whilst watching the sunrise over the mountainside in Koforidua, Ghana
Whilst Breathing fresh mountain air.
Ase’
“Nature is my Mirror” LA Harris
“TEAR-FREE”
Tear-free at Anomansa
Twas not built for We
We Cry at the ocean
We Want not by the Sea
Why waste precious water
On thy enemy’s feet
We dry up like a raisin
Before submission to He
Our Ancestors bled
They struggled to be free
I am seeking the Spirit
Of Gifts left behind for We
Native/original name of Elmina was Anomansa or Enumaa nsa or wonumaa ensa (when you drink, it doesn’t finish. Place of inexhaustible water)
Ancestral Graveyard
By LA Harris
Codman Academy Dorchester, Massachusetts