by Martin Anton Smith

How Did They Make Slavery Legal?

They Gave Them Some Pocket Money

Reduced Their Hours

Gave Them A Couple of Weeks Off A Year

Allowed Them A “Weekend”

& Just Like The Ancient Roman Caesers’

Oiled Them

Pacified them

Distracted Them

With “Bread Wine & Shows”

And Finally

Like A Retired Roman Centurian

Who Had Now Done His One-Score Stint

They Allowed Them A Very Slim Chance

To Escape Their Bonded Servitude

Then In The 19th Century They Ditched The Term “Slavery”

Then Relabelled & Exchanged It

For the Word “Employee”

But Among The Shadowy Slave Masters

That Have Always Ruled This Un-Hallowed Orb

It’s Simply Called

“Sustainable Slavery”

But They Couldn’t Have Done It Without Us

Sleepwalking Down the Aisles & Amphitheaters

& Into The Bloody Colosseums

& We Did It All

For Just A Few

Crumbs Drops & Laughs

Of Those Three Hypnotising Secret Agents

“Bread, Wine, & Shows”

Woe Is We

The Eternally Hoodwinked Masses

We’ve Lasted Through The Ages

Fed With ‘More Of The Same’

Yes It’s True

Nothing Really Changes

In This Roman Empire

That We Still Call Home.