A Respectable Trade(free verse version)

How can one think
Kidnapping victims
From their homes
Can be thought
A respectable trade?

How can one think
Packing humans in dark
Dank ship hulls, in their own
Excrement and vomit is
A respectable trade?

How can one think
Forcing servitude on others,
Torturing, chaining and
Starving them can be seen as
A respectable trade

How could one think
Taking one's freedom,
Pride and sense of self away
Could be a part of
A respectable trade

Slavery or any sort
Of similar maltreatment
Or discrimination should
Never ever be seen as
A respectable trade



A Respectable Trade ( rhyming version)

How can you call it respectable
When you take away human rights,
Kidnap, starve and torture,
Leave hope far from sight.

Was it humane to pack people like sardines in dark,
Dank ship hulls, dirtier than a sty
So they fed themselves to the sharks
Whenever they got a chance to see the sky?

Was it just when they finally pulled to shore,
they found themselves enslaved:
Used to serve meals, open a door
You wonder why it was thought depraved
That Africans didn't serve politely
And always thought of being free
Wouldn't apologize contritely
When they accidentally spilled the tea

I find myself forlornly shaken
how we made their lives so horrible,
we caused a race to feel forsaken,
And so few saw this treatment deplorable.

Traders were so into power and greed.
They didn't think they were doing wrong
By not allowing people what they need.
Their own lives. Their own song.

Slavery was one of our biggest sins.
I hope this lesson we have learned;
That we should always make a big din
When human decency has been overturned.


Which poem should be kept and which discarded, or should both be kept?