You took me by the hand,
your child nearing forty,
below deck, an oaken bow
under sail. I feel no shame
but the stench from the holds
flow in these veins: some part,
some limb in chains.
I come Okumfo, back
to your green retracing shore.
Open the gates of Peki!
Flatten the walls of Pong!
My name in bronze inscribed
on a phallus bridging two worlds;
on a heart beating to beats
from your ‘Masks’ —
the asciento to my passage.
~ McDonald Dixon
Poet, playwright, novelist, McDonald Dixon’s latest publications are ‘Beloved Country and other poems’ (2013) and the novel ‘Saints of Little Paradise: Book One’ (2012).