Copyright © 2013 by Michael Krause
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, dead or alive, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
A Disgusting Trade:
Cold and numb,
Cast in iron,
Barely a mouthful, barely a crumb,
Just like our brothers of old, torn from Zion!
From home to ship,
From ship to hardship,
Sold unfairly just like meat,
But, the sternest souls cannot be beat!
Long for freedom,
Long for a place we can call home,
Shackles and cages,
Young and old blood rages!
With one great deed,
They will come to succeed,
In time,
For holding any person down is a despicable crime!
A great man during civil war,
Could not take the anguish of the people anymore,
The pain of all the great black men, women and children of the great nation
So below and behold! Emancipation proclamation!
A Distant Scar:
Laughing,
And smiling,
Switches suddenly to discomfort and unrest,
This irrational behaviour I have come to detest.
Eyes once open,
Now they are closed.
Broken and confused,
My whole being feels abused.
Don’t want to eat,
Just want to be out,
And figure out in my own time, what these feelings are all about.
I take a seat,
In a lonely aisle,
And ponder my life for a brief while.
Sometimes I cannot believe,
Even to this day,
How life is so fragile…
And can easily slip away,
But you have to carry on, smile and deceive,
That is, until the memories grow old and the pain becomes less,
Then and only then can you look back with a vague smile.
A Drop of Relief:
Eating me up inside,
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide;
Happiness, denied
Lost sense of pride.
Sleep for a hundred moons,
I could.
I feel like I should.
Hot pulsing blood seeps from my veins.
Why do you hold me down with your mighty foot?
Pushing me further,
Haven’t I suffered enough with this cut?
Scream for mother,
Screams lost in my own mind,
Feel so down, lost and blind.
My life is a tear,
Deep depression, it’s you I fear!
It consumes my essence, like a mosquito to bare skin,
Poking and stabbing ever deeper.
I fear ye not reaper!
And with every hot drop, I let the pain out and let a sigh of relief in.
A Paranoid State:
Eyes surround us,
Don’t you look at me!
Are these people friendly or are they classed as the enemy?
I’m surrounded by wary eyes on this crowded bus.
Inhuman and human glare,
The cameras stare.
Security number one priority,
Or so they say.
Just like society, the skies remain doomy and grey.
I’ll go about my business,
You stay out of mine,
Don’t talk to me stranger, I don’t need this added stress!
Paranoid state of mind;
Can’t relax, looking over our shoulders all the time,
And the majority of us are afraid to place a foot out of line.
A Plea from your Morning Star:
I want to be bigger,
And stronger,
Than my father.
Isn’t it natural, to want to push myself further?
Alas... He was too strong,
Cast out.
I know I did wrong…
“You don't know what existing is about!"
"You will learn your lesson!"
"I am sorry father, I don't like it here"
"You should have thought of that before son."
I shed a painful tear.
When will he let me come back?
Back into his heart and mind?
Of time I have lost track.
Heavenly father, my father, father who cured the blind,
Let me back in!
And absolve me of my sins…
A Wise Primate:
In this cage of mine,
Lonely.
They can see that I wish for a place more homely.
I feel for the dogs at night, how they pine.
All eyes on me,
My family have been murdered, but trophies still remain.
I do not hate them but rather pity them.
How I’ve dreamt of the injustice of late and also of a tree filled plain,
How can we be 97 percent the same? Yes, from the same family we stem.
I cannot speak but if I could,
I’d teach you a lesson or two.
I want to live my life how I should,
High in the trees with my baby and not in a zoo,
And most importantly unafraid,
But… these old orang-utan eyes know this will never be the case, I’m afraid.
Alien in a Room:
Driving slowly through the woods,
Trees of remembrance.
See rare beasts by chance,
On my travels to collect my weekly goods.
Familiar faces wave hello,
On horse and cart,
Two faced,
Sucked in with my big, open heart;
Money misplaced,
Where did it go?
Roman ancestry,
Communist history,
Backward thinkers,
Let’s hope the next generation aren’t such stinkers!
Crooked yet very welcoming;
Must have seen this old fool coming!
Technology Wins:
An age of phones,
An age of night,
Endless roads,
And endless fights.
Feudal life,
We resist.
Resist destruction, to exist,
Endless wars, endless rife,
That is the way of human life.
Take this dagger from my heart;
Replace it with beauty, as such as art.
Social life replaced by technology,
Not always so, but yes, for the majority.
Life or death, what will it be?
We will soon come to see,
As all human life will be consumed by technology.
Animal is King:
Like a lioness on the prowl,
Lurking patiently,
Not letting out one single growl,
Gazing at you blatantly.
Pounce at the easiest opportunity,
Even without close scrutiny,
Like a starved dog, closing in on a wounded beast,
Try to think of tomorrow and not todays feast.
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