Poems by students from Burntwood school - part 2

During her residency at Parliament, the poet and playwright Rommi Smith led workshops at Burntwood School in South London. The students produced some poems and prose inspired by the slave trade, which you can read here.

Untitled, Mevan Bebakar

Built on the foundations of our Ancestors...

20cm apart and nowhere to run, Mevan Bebakar

The Shackles resonate around the cage...

What is freedom?, Mary Kelly and Kate King

What is the use of words if no one will listen?

Trapped in a dry cage with a watery key, Abigail Moloney

Freedom is awating me...

My beloved, Ayoola Oyefuwa

My beloved husband, once I've been soothed by the ocean's rhythm, my soul will be with you...

Decision of my life, Ummey Khan

I feel like a butterfly who can't fly away...

Waiting to be free, Laura Parry

Ripped wings, torn soul, my life is incomplete...

The depth of freedom, Alice Day

The feeling of a hefty load of aching pain...

Free in the ocean, Zainab Rizvi

I have reached my awaited destination...

Journey to my future, Lizzie Hill

I float up towards heaven Just for a second or two...

Freedom is..., Rachel Mclaverty-Williamson

Freedom is that spring of release...

Breaking out, Anon

My skin cracks like ice...

I didn't speak out, Emily Kneller

They were captured, But I didn't speak out...

In this section

Parliament and the British Slave Trade: Reflections and anecdotes
- Poems by students from Burntwood school - part 2