mutual aggression

in the public sphere

where all the nosey eyes peer

willing to take photos with their little phone cameras

all ready to post them on facefuck & twatter

looking for reasons to feel important for

5 seconds, as the viral aspects of their own daily lives

pitter away like sand through the fingers,

the day so far has brought frustration---

no doubt the morning might have brought a child who didn’t want the

strawberry pancakes that you labored at prior to their

arrival on the scene

or the job wants you in earlier than normal

or the idiot in front of you won’t step on the gas

or the shirt your pressed the night before

grew wrinkly as you stumbled drunkenly through the savage morning routine

that society has demanded of us all &

then, just as you thought it all might stop for a moment,

another human steps into the fray---

unbeknownst to her/him,

you have already begun the fight with life on this day in question &

s/he might be doing exactly the same (giving benefit of the doubt)---

so as one thing leads to another,

be it over the last muffin on the rack in the bakery or

over a needed parking spot,

whatever the case might be,

the snapping comes simultaneously,

as mutual aggression seeps into the scenario

which neither of you expected

but secretly wanted---

and though you are taught through years & years of

oppressive conditioning

to be a good citizen

to suppress all angst until you can

deposit it in the “appropriate” receptacles,

the fuses have been lit &

neither of you have any more patience to waste on

what others would have you do

in order to make them feel more comfortable

as if all were peaches, roses &

the white picket fence---

so as the fists do follow,

the clothes being ripped, the bruises that develop,

they do not hide the fact that

you’re both still animals

who eat

who sleep

who f**k

who scream &

who die---

delight in the mayhem.