When humans replaced gold and ivory as cargo
When Africans were sold and branded
as merchandise
When the castle became a hothouse
of rebellion
Then protection was needed  from within
As well as from without.

Barak and Michelle Obama once came
Wonder if they too smelled the lingering
500 years stench of death
felt the pain of the souls the screamed
‘Remember us, Remember us’

Where a church once administered
to the souls of the slave owners in the sunshine
A Priest shrine, in the bowels of the dungeons,
now minister to the souls of the dead
and to the hearts of the living
who want to remember
Marriages too are celebrated here

If each wreath, stacked neatly in a corner of the dungeon
Represents a million dead
There would not be enough
To atone for the blood that was shed.

Cape Coast castle offers an opportunity
for the Diaspora
whose ancestors left through the ‘Door of No Return’
to find our way back, via Ghana, ‘The Gateway to Africa’
Through the ‘Door of Return.’
Akwaaba! Akwaaba! Akwaaba

Predencia Dixon Copyright 2016