An Abecedarian

After language ceases to serve the needs of a people, it’s said

Brutality takes hold. Protests shift from

“Civilized

Discourse,” to, well, you know. This proclamation hardly denotes truth.

Ever louder, people cry for peace while sneering at justice.

Failing to see positive peace as an active process.

Game theory only gets us so far. If we

Hope to produce something other than avoidance or

If we want something new– something closer to onus–

Just cooperating doesn’t cut it. Justice has always been

Kinetic. Boots on the ground, steeped in conflict and resolution,

Lusting for direct action as one

Might a distant lover.

Now, we reckon with the fact that violence has always been

Our master. Never has there been a time when barbarity didn’t shade our

Perceptions of how to behave.

Quickened hearts at flashing lights in the

Rearview mirror reminds us not to speed and

Some of us, not to live or breathe.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right” (the moderate response) ignores the

Underlying racism. Never mind the fact that the first wrong is imagined.

Virtually judge, jury, and executioner and still sanctioned by the state; it’s a

Wonder anyone trusts the decisions of administrations.

Xenophobic zealots leading armies of eighteen-

Year-olds to death in wars meant for conquest in their

Zero-sum game.