All Water Has a Perfect Memory

excerpts from Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez’s “Wake”

photograph by A.B. Godfreed

I look for their testimony
I find this:
June 13: “died a girl Slave №9.”
June 14: “died a Woman №10.”
June 15: “died a Man Slave №11.”

[T]he decisions they made
and why they made them:
keep them in coffle
onboard a slave ship
keep a close eye on them
fetch a good price

But we are strong
Dahomey warriors
hard to contain
jump overboard
fight back all the time

This is ancestry in progress
it is our superpower
our way out of no way
so too is our resilience

We must use our haunting
and see how it could be
otherwise

***

This piece is composed solely out of phrases taken randomly from “Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts”, a book written by Rebecca Hall (2021) and illustrated by Hugo…