SUSAN

Tired of the triangle—

Bristol, Ghana, Virginia—

eager for more profit,

they filled your belly in

Galway instead,

traded black flesh for

white. The shipmaster

forbid African eyes

from looking on the ocean,

knowing how deep water

can be mistaken for

home, but Irish were allowed

to pace the deck, Catholic

sins stronger than any

iron bonds. Susan,

could you tell

the difference between forbidden

lamentations tonguing through

your chambers, between black

and white flesh rotting

in your bowels? This is not about

stealing history, only sketching

this story: water, hell, a legacy of thieves.

Teneice Durrant Delgado is a graduate of Spalding University's MFA program and the author of three chapbooks, Flame Above Flame (Finishing Line Press, 2006), The Goldilocks Complex (Rock Saw Press, 2009), and Burden of Solace, a collection of poems about the Irish slaves in Barbados, forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. She is co-founder and poetry editor for Blood Lotus: an online literary journal and edits chapbooks for Winged City Press.