Trader’s Gate

By Zack Davies

[Up until 2020, Chatham (Kent, UK) had a car park named after the slave trader Sir John Hawkins, situated by the River Medway. After campaigning by local residents, the site was renamed “St John’s”, despite opposition from Conservative council members]

Summer. The tarmac bakes,

captive, dry and black.

Gnarled posts hang chains

beside the gangway track.

Who owns this land?

John Hawkins, reads the sign.

Here down to the low-tide sand,

John Hawkins, it is thine.

Shoreside, a shimmering Corvette

slips between the thin

orthogonal designs.

Priced possessions, jemmied in,

stowed along white lines.

Who rides the waves?

John Hawkins and his guests.

Piously, what Jesus saves,

John Hawkins reinvests.

Herd it off and on,

the shackled chatter.

Life is but a fee to John;

Black lives, merely matter.

Whom do we commemorate,

Cherished as our better?

A trader's name at Traders' Gate -

John Hawkins, reads the letter.

So stood the name, until

The recent year.

John is its keeper still -

The Saint, now; not the Sir.

Sleep, dead man. Stand back,

Yours shall be re-signed.

We will take your land back,

John Hawkins, and your kind.

Zack Davies (he/him) is a poet based in Kent, UK. He writes about politics, meditation and Q-tips and hosts regular Gravesend spoken word night, Holy Moly. He has written four books and will write a fifth if not stopped. Find him online at https://www.instagram.com/alfredzachariahdavies/ or 
https://zackdavies.wordpress.com/ .