Wrapped in shinny wrappers, <br />golden, red, silver and brown, <br />chocolate, the king of sweets, <br />everyone's favorite treat, <br />dropp it in your mouth, <br />it slips and melts, <br />bitter sweet with nuts, <br />lover's gift, chocolate kiss! <br /> <br />Born in West Africa <br />bred by little hands, <br />little feet walked three days, <br />on stale porridge and water, <br />sweets they have heard not, <br />schools they know not, <br />only cocoa farms. <br /> <br />With machetes in their hands, <br />they chop the pods, <br />often, when they swing too high, <br />they strike their leg, <br />often when they swing too low, <br />they, strike their hand, <br />hospitals they have none, <br />muddy clothes they tear <br />and tie the bleeding wounds, <br />continue to collect the beans, <br />for a child in the city <br />might be throwing a tantrum, <br />for his favorite sweet. <br /> <br />Hungry hearts, candy bars, <br />snakes bites, valentine's gift, <br />gift of blood, spraying pesticides, <br />dark, white and milk, pleasure trip, <br />horror, blood and tears, cartoon strip, <br />Easter egg, child labor, dark treats. <br /> <br />When the men in uniform they arrive, <br />the children hide the machete, <br />and pretend to play, how can they <br />for they know no games. <br /> <br />The cocoa bean from black, muddy <br />bleeding hands sit on the shelves <br />of the finest stores where tiny <br />soft pink hands pick them up <br />From hand to hand the chocolate <br />travels, sinned on the way <br />bitter sweet, the chocolate's way. <br /> <br /> <br />money.cnn.com/2008/01/24/news/international/chocolate_bittersweet.fortune/ - 70k - <br />www.antislavery.org/homepage/news/cocoareport290702.htm - <br />www.american.edu/ted/chocolate-slave.htm<br /><br />Reshma Ramesh<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dark-chocolate/
