Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Above, Francis Bok, a Sudanese slave

for more than ten years.

SLAVE WAIL

My mournful cry does call forth,

A dirge for me and my kin,

I have been appraised,

And have been humbled,

My skin naked, exposed,

No decency left to me,

Beaten and tied,

Standing in iron chains

Knowing I have no choice,

But to submit or die,

Why does no one intervene?

Is there no justice for me?

Oh, woe am I!

I am of worth,

But now I am of cost,

To someone subjugating me,

I feel like I live ages ago,

When this travesty was common,

But, lo, I live today!

Scourged beyond imagination,

Sold into darkest slavery,

While the modern world,

Passes by heedless,

A crime in plain sight.

PTR February 26, 2011