Violence

 VIOLENCE

I was conceived in violence

        And born in violence,

Ripped from my mother's womb

        By an impatient doctor

With forceps in his hands

        In a little down

Half a mile from nowhere.

            ********

I was raised in violence,

        The slap to the face,

The broken belt

        In the upraised fist,

The broom, the iron, the switch,

        Anything that came to hand

Would do in a pinch.

            **********

I lived in violence,

        Violence at home,

                Violence abroad,

Violence in an unknown land.

        It was a violent time,

                But all times

                        Are violent times.

            **********

Because violence is everywhere,

        In the night, in the twilight,

                In the daylight.

It grows, changes, mutates.

        It metastasizes into something

                New and strange,

But still it is known.

            **********

It is as old as dirt,

        As common as dust,

                As easy as a well-worn shirt.

Violence is as red as a setting sun,

        As white as a polar night,

                As blue as a wasted life,

As hungry as a wolf howling at the moon.

            **********

It waits for me like a spiker in its web.

        It waits patiently,

                For it knows

I was conceived in violence,

        And I will die in violence,

The flames shooting from my eyes,

        My bones turning to ash.