The Port Remembers

A dream? I remember a nightmare Skywalk or archway Afro-futures, architecture, red line, village slum Spatial other, ritual fire, Congo caves Limestone kingdoms Hologram, clay sons, silver chariots Lynch angels from 1590 Crossing borders with the Roman priest in her eyes Generational eyes, laced skirts, stilts, stockings Young men or boys Fractured reptilian hearts, high-heel masquerade High-held matriarch The port remembers the slow walk into the void Washing away the blood Dirt hands, how come we can't remember? Building the railroads, the churches, the financial revolution The empire, the up and down The going The peace-out, the love below, the jive The aged, the bebop, the drag The heat, the fire, the flame The exchange, the future Charles the II, the Devil Richard ran it Six sugar plantations, 600 slaves The Hayward Brothers, two burning by, with sugar from the West Indies Cotton from America, blood from Bristol Prelude to a master In the business of Death and whiteness Industry and empire Personality and cults Temple ocean 6 a.m. 'til sunset Got me all ball and chain Drag me everywhere I go Doin' time, wages of the tardy Got me a town piece, the ol' ball and chain Drag me everywhere I go From the valley of the sugar mills All the way down to Rosewood, Jefferson County, Mississippi Magnolia grove Georgetown County, South Carolina The Mansfield Plantation 3000 hours in a minute 3000 hours in a minute Just to get over the bridge, water canal Tread river, George's dock, the King's dock, the Queen's dock And I ain't heard no prayer comin' out of St. Paul's Church Or Saint John's Church or Saint Thomas' Church The exchange Three African heads and six ropes The birth of angels, temple agents, Jesus Now, tell me who provide the air? Now, tell me who provide the air? Dollar cotton Forgive us of our debts Our sins, our service What always, would everywhere What by all, is held to be true He's alive, dead lyin' in a grave What always, would everywhere What by all, is held to be true He's alive, dead alive in a grave And you just couldn't let her go You tied ship to tongue, heart to devil