NEVER AGAIN

I speak not of the holocaust,
Not six millions gassed to death
But the writing, “Never Again”
At the foot of a statue in Jufure
A man with a global map head
With outstretched arms
With broken chains of slavery
To mark the end of an era
When free men and women
Even children were sold into slavery
We celebrate now, at the Freedom Pole
And relive Alex Haley’s ‘Roots’ in June
With boat regattas to James Island
And with the proclamation, Never Again

Never Again, I heard them say
As I peep to see the irony
Not to judge by the lightness
Of sea surface, shimmering in the sun
For the depth is dark and deep
Slavery is as old as man can tell
And there is no end in sight
Looking at the freedom we won,
The masters who sit in replacement
Of the brutish slave masters of yore
With all the apparatus of empire state
I can not tell the difference
Ignorance keeps us in bondage
And mocks the call for human rights