I Am Slavery

I have always been,

Skulking in the shadows of this world.

I will always be,

Hiding from the heavy hand of the law.

I shall never die,

I feed on greed and want.

You can never stop me,

I can only be stalled.

Do you know what I am?

In the early days, I lived in the crack of a whip

In the dusty cotton fields, at fair skinned command.

In the dark damp huts, in the whimper and moans,

In the cry of pain, in the overseers heart.

I traded my goods across the ocean.

But then,

                             I was stalled.

Do you know what I am?

I tore children from their mothers

Husbands from their wives.

I tore spirit from their breasts

And hope from their eyes.

Souls from your bodies,

All lost to hard labour.

Do you know what I am?

Money paid for peoples lives, and i made it happen.

Once bought, never restored.

I heard their screams, I heard their songs

I ignored their cries for help.

And I gloried in it

It was my bread, it was my meat.

So I grew bigger, every inch more cruel.

They cut me down, but I sprout up anew

There is always a path into the dark side of human minds.

Do you know who I am?

I live more dirtily and silently now

One's pleasure, another's pain.

People close their eyes to it

But I am bigger than I ever was before.

I shall leave no place touched

And taint the innocence of your beautiful children.

In your cocoa fields

And in those dirty basements.

Do you know who I am?

I can never die,

Yet I have never lived.

People don't believe I still exist,

But I have never been more real.

I take what I want and I take what you need.

Everyone breaks in the end.

I AM SLAVERY

I wait.