The Merchant and the Slave
Wasted oceans journey long in misery endured
The slaves of this new world commodity reserved
In decks below to fortune chained in poor neglected health
For the reaching hands of merchants empowered by their wealth
A shattered restless journey crying and downbeat
To frighten every lonely soul there’s nothing here discrete
Forsaken drowning and displaced the slave he has no claim
Confused abused and ridiculed but he is really not to blame
Commissioners gather the price to pay their only blade
Disguised, applied they stand astride allied to lie
Gather then upon the deck and hide their face in shade
The misery within the hold they do not care, and not ask why
Just a number on their wet skins, their names are lost, it matters not
To work for nothing until you drop an unknown graveyard lot
Uncaring eyes look out from cloth arrayed with golden ties
Turn their backs, once the price is paid, their life is on the rise
This lifeless place with countless toil all restraint and waste
Its crashing misery, in cursed unformed courtroom haste
Wrapped in falsehood bowed and stayed writhing in deceit
These merchants are from other times spiteful in their conceit
History does tell of dreadful times this trade is now despised
But foundations laid on the lives of slaves those purses are now prised
Distinguished, honour laden corporate empires have devised
The method to detach them from and to fog their early enterprise
(2012)
A slaves lament, a human commodity, a wasted life, corporate greed, and an empire built...!!
