Feeling Fetter Everyday
We were told at a young age,
capitalism is long-term better
Got the short end of the slave trade,
now everyday I’m feeling fetter
Working the industrial fields,
come rain or shine
Breathing factory fumes that kill,
half-life expectancy
was the pyramid pay
for toiling overtime
Blue shirts keep giving us eclipse hearts
the undertaker blues
Blue steel love sending to the black veils
more barrel bad news
Shooting galleries on display
on the downtrodden side of the stacks
Hopelessness is the drug
that provides
the fleeting freedom we daily lack
We were told at a very tender age,
capitalism is so much better
Got the debtor deal of the slave trade,
now everyday I’m feeling fetter
Heard whispers of an emancipation
given many moons ago
But invisible chains left us shackled
to the market ebb and flow
Unpaid wages of labor
lends unto itself
plenty of poverty pain to promissory borrow
Practice hate thy neighbor,
preach usury stealth
Ivory towers never expect a darker tomorrow
Bred to be sold like cattle head,
let the coin decide the cull
Oh how the runaways be ballot led
to the anchored end of the hull
We were taught at a garden paradise age,
capitalism is Adam splitter better
Got the chain reaction part of the slave trade,
seems everyday I’m feeling fetter
Waves and waves of tears
fall to the barren ground of our captivity
An aching need for amnesia
to heal our collective bound memories
Harrowing echoes of the plight of the damned
cascade across the ocean of time
Doors of opportunity always bar code slammed,
our genetic number wasn’t prime
This telltale sin
was mercantile written
on our unlit skin
Degradation was the scarlet letter
given to our kin
We were told at an innocent age,
pure capitalism is soul profitable better
Yet, we got the least end of the slave trade,
and every hollow day I’m feeling fetter
07-22-21
Copyright © Freddie Robinson Jr. | Year Posted 2021
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