Irish from Cork County
indentured — chattel
like livestock, like slaves, with slaves —

shipped to Barbados
by Oliver Cromwell,
their white legs sunburned to “red legs.”

            Remember his head on that pole?
Did it shed tears of regret?
Or — was that rain?

Today, find rusted ‘red legs’
still in shacks — no toilet,
no running water, no electricity,

poor health, poor food,
disease,
decay.

None today in cozy Kinsale harbor
know that long history
of young long gone.