Looters

The kingdom of Benin, palace of their king

Looted of its treasures by the British king.

One king to another: I have looted you. 

Keep on reading, to learn the IOU.

Now there is nothing we have not looted:

Valuable hides, gold, human beings looted.

Slaves of no rights slavery endured,

Then of looted rights further endured.

Centuries of progress on all sides but theirs;

Looters get up looting, the guns are all theirs. 

Stop the looters and the anarchists,

Though they be kings and royalists. 

Stop the looters and the socialists,

Though they be Republicans and capitalists.

We have the stolen and the looted lives;

Give them compensation: Black Lives

Matter. Doesn’t it condemn your court

To never catch the king at sport?

Looting, looting all the way to power, 

Even in the trickle of a golden shower. 

Blast it, thieves and mercenaries, too!

I have to know how mercy for the few

Tramples all the looted and the loot.

Perhaps the looted catches us as loot:

Masks observe us, while maledictions hue.

We stumble onward guilty and quite blue.

Looters, give up looting on your taxes;

Looters, come and loot us on our taxes.

Bring it all around to where you’re sitting.

Looters there their grand loot are splitting,

Pouring over all the loot of land —

You need some armies on that loot to stand.

Looters loot the lives of those brave armies,

Loot by force the spoils of warring armies.

Even cities stood around to seize

Looters come with all their force to please

The looters in their ranks and kings and princes:

Looting is the native national business. 

Looters of our rights stand up and see

You lose those rights without an RBG.

Oh, I’ve smoked the truth on out at last:

If you loot, loot by law, it’s fast. 

John Sevcik