Tom Pirozzoli The Lodestone

I came upon a tattered book
I picked it up and had a look
A young girl’s story of a time held slave
and her plans of escape it read like this

I hear the water on the shore
I see my children at play
l write this down for what it’s worth
For it was not always this way

Just a child in 1741
The year the slave traders come
Breached our shores in the dead of night
Stole men and women and children alike.

A girl like me does as she’s told
But I watched I waited patiently
I saw The captain’s pride was his Lodestone
’Twas his guide across the seas

Girls and boys were cabin slaves
In time I gained the captain’s grace
As he slept stone drunk one night
I stole his keys I stole his prize

I Slipped the guards a-sleeping by then
Freed the women and men
Over the side With a boat and oars
Ever so quiet for nameless shores.

There are men who would steal our right to be free
but time revealed it was all we could be

Once out on the sea
Far from the slaver’s hand
The Lodestone gave us hope
Of safe harbor for to land

I am young no more
But each day I watch the shore
No man alive you see
Will ever again take freedom from me