Stone Town Markers, Markets
Bronze Livingstone is specked with pigeon shit
And thousands walk across his abbey tomb
His London grave, tourists, heedless of it.
A few might think of liberty’s slow bloom
In Africa where slavery died its long
And lingering death. They do not know that in
Another church, in Zanzibar, a strong
Remembrance of his war against this sin
Lives on. Stonetown’s cathedral is aware
And has installed two monuments. They’re set
Above the slavery market’s dungeons where
The trapped were caged like death-doomed birds. Forget
Them, if you must, there in their holes.
Do not forget to step towards freedom’s goals.