Intimidate,
Escalate,
Retaliate.
The tools of
The insecure
Tyrant.
Forcing
His hurt
Into others.
They see him as
Different,
Not like them,
Foreign.
They treat him
With savage disdain,
Contempt oozing from
Narrowed eyes.
Nothing off limits,
The only goal is
The annihilation of
The intruder.
They’ve been able
To do whatever they want,
For so long,
With no accountability,
Complete impunity,
That they bristle indignantly
When challenged in any way,
The arrogance of
Unearned authority.
When it’s one of
Their own,
They mourn gravely;
When it’s one
Of the outsiders,
They congratulate
Each other on
A job well done,
The sanctity of the
Clique intact.
A fancy sports car
Drives by in a cloud of noise,
Expensive beauty —
The inane things we covet
When we forget who we are.
If he can’t be happy
Then nobody else can.
They try to approach
Him but it’s no use,
He can only meet them
At a certain level,
The one his parents
Forced into him when
He had no choice.
As long as everyone looked
Like them, believed and
Behaved similarly,
They were happy.
It was only when
People they were not
Familiar with started
Appearing in the neighborhood
That rumors started to spread
About how the new arrivals
Were going to take over and
Destroy their way of life.
He still remembers the
Dark outline above him,
His mother by the door,
As he was mercilessly
Lashed for some minor,
Random infraction.
Barely making it through
High school, too many
Anxieties roiling through
His mind, he vows to
Do something so others don’t
Have to go through what he did.
He follows a career path that
Puts him in a position of
Authority and power; he feels
It course through his system,
The ability to control others,
Punish with impunity.
Another preventable tragedy
Shocks decency, and they all
Stand around, hands sullied,
Complicit in this constant
Violence they pretend is
Senseless but that has
Deep roots in their soiled
Thoughts and actions,
Damaged psyches unhealed,
Aggressive greed,
Retention of power
More important than
The lives of human beings.
