Edward Kamau Brathwaite(b. 1930)

Sonnet 2: "It will be a long long time before we see"

It will be a long long time before we see

this land again, these trees

again, drifting inland with the sound

of surf, smoke rising

It will be a long long time before we see

these farms again, soft wet slow green

again: Aburi, Akwamu,4

mist rising

Watch now these hard men, cold

clear eye'd like the water we ride,

skilful with sail and the rope and the tackle

Watch now these cold men, bold

as the water banging the bow in a sudden wild tide,

indifferent, it seems, to the battle

of wind in the water;

for our blood, mixed

soon with their passion in sport,

in indifference, in anger,

will create new soils, new souls, new

ancestors; will flow like this tide fixed

to the star by which this ship floats

to new worlds, new waters, new

harbours, the pride of our ancestors mixed

with the wind and the water

the flesh and the flies, the whips and the fixed

fear of pain in this chained and welcoming port.