I can still smell the strong aroma of vinegar used to wash away the blood
of slaves who were flogged on deck until their backs were raw
mainly the ones who refused to eat  or drink in order to be made bigger
to sale on the auction block.Their lips were sewn together and a hole
was cut into the side of the cheek and boiled millet was poured in
We slept less than six inches apart below the deck amid the *****
funk,feces,side to side,belly to belly,hands and feet in short chains
a slave will try to escape usually as the small canoe is leaving the shore
or throw himself into the shark infested waters to end his doomed life
while the chains and anglets were taken off that we could dance
to fiddle music music and entertain the captain and crew with yellow rotting teeth and whiskey coated breathes
before arriving on deck some slaves might have died
and were thrown overboard or put into rafts piled up and floated
out to sea,and so we were again counted and examined  one by one
*******,groins,toes, backs ,teeth, arms
No wonder that some of us slaves thought that death was a highly
prized escape over living a life of chained misery