Laurence Overmire - Slave Ship lyrics

I lie on my back Look up through the grate Light streams in bars across the planks The black and white reflection of an angry god A pair of shoes walks across Keeping watch with silk-stocking regularity The slow, insistent plodding of minutes lost Happy in his stuff-bellied fortune He breathes clean, salty air. We here below packed in chains Swallow the thick foul vapors of human waste Rolling in filth with each turbulent toss of the wretched vessel The moans of the dying and the bones of the dead Join in eerie incantation Knocking On the doors of conscience A haunting litany to invoke the spirits of the wind… The seas revolt Hurling epithets of froth and foam To wash the sin away The gull shrieks An agonizing plea For mercy But deaf and blind, haughty lumps of men Shut all sense and stop their hearts Their thirst for gold will not be quenched Till millions die in shame Their pockets lined With generations Of untold wealth.