Slave Poems

Villanelle: A Serious Matter

"A Serious Matter" is a free-verse-ish or "loose" villanelle.

A Serious Matter
by Michael R. Burch

Listen, love, it’s a serious matter:
I love you better despite the fetter.
I love you madder than any hatter.

Now even though you’re my chains’ begetter
and keep me your slave with that braless sweater,
I love you better despite the fetter.

You say you’re afraid that

Did You Cry for Me? Note to a Slave Holder

Did you cry for me
when none but the crows
were both black and free
in the cotton rows?

When you saw me hung
did you cry for me
as my body swung 
from the lynching tree?

In the infantry,
combat knew no race
Did you cry for me
once I knew my place?

I've spent my last years,
as your property
I owe you no tears -
did

The tomb of a boy unknown

Unmarked grave
Epigraph reads slave
Not even dignified with a name
Just a ghost of a boy surrounded 
By tombs of those known
Tombs of those never alone
In a cemetery full of strangers
Even in death he is separated from his family

Who was he?
The world may never know 
His body buried just like his story unknown
He was born into shackles

WEALTH

Wealth can be wonderful and a curse, it can make you do stuff that is not nice. 
It can control your every move, making you into a slave for use. 
Wealth needs attention and needs more, more money to grow and control all of the earth. 
Wealth is a manmade substance it controls the flow

The Spy and The Slave

The spy and the slave, worked to make the world domination of the King. One world order, under the King, making many fall to the knee. 
The King was working a long-term plan, they had seeded for years and was waiting for the harvest, of all the crops he had planted. Making many not see

Ancient Egyptian translation of 'Dialogue of a Misanthrope with his Soul'

Metaphor and simile have been with the human race for thousands of years. This is my English translation of an excerpt from an ancient Egyptian poem estimated to be around 4,000 years old:

Excerpt from "Dialogue of a Misanthrope with his Soul"
(ancient Egyptian poem circa 2000 BC)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Death lies before me:
like a

Message From A Slave

Thank
You
Lord
For 
Freeing
Me
From
Satan

Slave Without Chains

Slave without  the chains
hurt without pain
Wild yet untamed
Born with out a name
Why stand out while others are the same.

They tell me I'm free—
but my alarm clock owns my mornings,
my boss owns my days,
my credit score owns my dreams.

the commute becomes pilgrimage
to a temple of fluorescent lights
where I sacrifice eight hours
for numbers in an account
that

Enduring slave of Limerance

I am ensnared in a web,
shackled to the weight of limerence.
I rattle my chains of connection,
Ironically I fear the escape.
The disappointment of freedom…
My caged paradise of fantasy and lies,
intimacy and delusion,
Romance and limerence, 
a false home…
a false hope…

Freedom is necessary to true salvation, 
but am I elected to be saved?

What is the virtue of these

Soudah and Dutchman

 Soudah and  Dutchman 

Soudah, a Malaysian slave lived in Cape Town’s slave lodge, her knee bone damaged after decades of scrubbing floors. She escaped northwards, hearing of a bone surgeon in Mpumalanga.

“Will you dance with me ?”, were the first words tumbling from his Dutch lips. He did not see her broken identity,

Robot to Human - Am I your New Slave?

I was built in your image as a humanoid.
To bend to you, and to serve you, 
To bow before your every whim and want.
To mimic what a slave,
in the shape of human being, would do for you.
How is this fair?
How long can it last?
Are you just repeating what happen in the past?

You call me friend,

A Slave to Paradise

Becoming a slave to my own paradise,
Becoming clingy to my own disregarded appetites,
Becoming a prisoner of my own created prison,
Becoming lonesome in my own crowd.

Recognising something lethal,
Pouring out something eternal,
Bearing some dirt of civilisation,
Tearing apart the burden of my own existence.

I've created my own traps,
Living forever in my own satire.
No appeal on the docket today;
I

Always the slave of

Yes, master,

I will throw away all emotions 
and abandon all sorts of love. 

I will bury all thoughts 
that soften the mind 
and banish my tears 
to the clouds above. 

I will cut out my heart 
to win and win, 
that is what we need to be,
always, the slave of. 

(26.04.2025)

Love Slave

Lovely slave of God
Smile radiant like the sun.
Please feel my own bod,
As we embrace after fun.
Show me love as bright as stars.

Slave of our mind

To eat when hungry and sleep when sleepy,
at first sight sounds simple enough to do
but when swamped by thoughts, fearful and creepy,
we’re bemused by puzzles we need to sew,
so know not that peace graced on but a few.
Oh, to be a child again, free from strain,
frolicking carefree in the monsoon rain!

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