Ancestors

 I dived into the ocean with the perfect form of a diver. It was clear with the light of the sun breaking through the waters all around. It was vast and deep-about a thousand miles below. I kept diving, going deeper towards the bottom, but God was with me and I was able to breathe the air that He provided. I did become fearful as I journeyed to the bottom- would the weight of the ocean waters crush me? Would I run out of air? Would the monsters of the deep devour me? 

The whales and the sharks did come by to see what creature was this that traveled through their domain. But they just passed by me , never attacking or threatening harm. The Spirit said keep going. So I swam towards the the deepest part of the ocean. But before I entered the abyss there was a landing- a sanded floor on top of a mountain. At the edge of the landing, there was nothing but darkness and vast open space for miles. 

Out of the darkness came up a flying wheel within a wheel ( Ezekiel 1:15,16,17) full of lights. It stood next to me and opened a stairway of light to me to enter in. But, I did not go up into it. Something drew me to the sandy beach on the mountain top. Then I saw a hand come up out of the sand and took hold of my ankle. Suddenly, I heard a voice saying, " Don't forget us," " Don't let our blood go unavenged," "Avenge us." Then I saw that there were bones everywhere scattered in the sand. It was the bones of the children of Israel that were taken on the slave ships off the west coast of Africa, and sold to the Edomite-Europeans by the African-Canaanites and the Arab-Ishmaelites. They cried out, " Don't forget us, go and avenge us of all the wrongs done to us." I listened, being shocked and in awe at the sight and sound of the voices of my ancestors speaking to me. 

I agreed in my heart to give them rest and help them obtain a better resurrection ( Heb. 11:35). I asked one of them to tell me her story. She was a child of 12 or 13 years of age; a short, dark, and beautiful little girl. She said, " I was sold by the Wolof people-the Africans." I was in my village and went to get water at the river. Now, we were at war with the Wolof, and as I was fetching water they ambushed me and kidnapped me. They did this to many and gathered us up for to march towards the ocean. 

On our march, I saw and experienced many evils. Men, women, and children were exposed to the lust and blood thirstiness of our captors. They killed any who resisted, and raped the women and children- I was raped. On the beach and in the town of our holding pen, we were housed like so many cattle- naked, hungry, and afraid. The Africans used some of us for their blood sacrifices, with many beheadings and ritual killings. 

This was hell and great horror. I was sold for wine and placed on the Edomite/foreigner ship with a thousand other captives. The men and women were separated. We were all crowed under the ship and sailed off on the open face of the ocean. There the tortures escalated- they beat us, they hanged us, they forced us to exercise, and to eat. The sick were cast to the sharks and the crew watched for entertainment as men, women, and children were eaten by the monsters of the deep. Those that fought back and rebelled received much torture. A pregnant woman who defied their evils was hanged by her leg, beaten with whips, and cut opened. The baby, falling to the deck of the ship crying was stomped to death by the devil who laughed with his evil host around him. 

My own case, is this. Saddened by all the horror and grief I witnessed, I became withdrawn and stop eating. The devil noticing me, and desired to rape me while I was on deck. But I stood up and looked towards the open sea and I jumped off the deck. The sea embraced me. It took me down to the bottom of the sea, to my grave. And here I lay with the ten thousands gone with me to the ocean floor. Our souls have no rest because of all the evils done to us. Daily, we cry out to God to avenge us, to remember the evils of Edom, the Africans, and the Arab Ishmaelites, with all the world, who helped them to do all this evil  on us. We cry for our people and our lands where the bones of our ancestors lay, desecrated by the enemy.

My heart was broken for my ancestors, upon hearing their story. And I vowed, at that moment, to tell their story as a witness against the enemies of God, and to avenge their blood. I took up the pen in my hand like a mighty sword of a strong warrior. And I wrote the poems and verses to witness to the truth of the ancestors of Israel and the sure wrath of GOD that will not delay. As I wrote God's Holy Spirit guided my pen and my cognitions to give voice to the dead and redemption to the souls gone.

-Zarach

Children of Men 

Lord, remember the children of men

forget not their crimes and vengeance on your child

remember the marches of tears, remember the cites of violence

remember the slave ships.

Journey

I journeyed across the ocean in search of a missing love.

My heart was never at peace at home. I yearned for my love; though I have never seen her,

Yet, my soul was drawn to her. 

She cried in the night and at dawn she had no joy, only mourning of sorrows.

I swore that when I became a man I would go and rescue her from the hands of her captors.

Middle Passage

Neither the vastness of the sea, nor the ocean deep

It's monsters and murky waters with Leviathan beneath can send the fear that deters.

I will seek you. I will find you, and I will carry you.

Take my hands my sister, my brother, my mother, my father, 

I will carry you.

Sea Charm

Sea charm

The sea's own children

Do not understand.

They know

But that the sea is strong

Like God's hand.

They know

But that sea wind is sweet

Like God's breath.

And that the sea holds

A wide, deep death

          -Langston Hughes