continuum

picture: Continuum Installation by Jenny Saville

bruises & cigarette burns

a world full of violence

seen with youthful eyes

near the beginning of a life

learning the ropes &

watching how the abuser

gets away with the abuse

learning how the abuser

bent on self-destruction &

the destruction of others

finds their way around a life of

subtle self-hatred, where finding any peace

means finding another to harm &

the cycle is passed on,

the addiction is multiplied---

cast out like a dirty rag

by those around them, by a society that calls itself

civilized, cast out by those that

raised them, they follow by

casting out their own,

after beating them within an inch of their life &

into the state system

like parent, like child

a new way of functioning is discovered

where getting the wrong card drawn

becomes the clear impetus for

survival of the fittest &

learning to hold your own is not only

required, it is something to take pleasure in,

because this way of stepping on others

to crush them like ants,

though it bloodies the knuckles,

it asserts power in the hands of the rejected

it asserts power in the hands of a real human being

who has already been deemed a bottom feeder,

whose chance to rise up is stifled or made frustrating

at every junction possible &

that first infringement upon the complacent calm of the

rest of us,

brings with it a penalty that is irrelevant,

as to be confined within walls will only breed more anger

it will only cause the need for an assertion of the power

over others through violence

to be that much more important

both inside & when we spit them out

again.