The Curriculum of Society’s Cruelty

You looked down

and found a fool

 

Because fools

are easier

to condemn

 

You looked up

and found

a devil

 

Because devils

excuse the hands

that made them

 

But you never

looked straight

ahead

 

You were afraid

of recognizing

yourself

 

I was not

born from

darkness

 

I learned it

watching you

 

You taught me

which lives

mattered

 

Which bodies

could disappear

 

Which countries

could burn

 

As long as

the smoke

never reached

your neighborhood

 

You taught me

compassion

has borders

 

That suffering

becomes

entertainment

at sufficient

distance

 

And death

becomes statistics

when there are

enough bodies

 

Then

you returned

to dinner

 

You

called this

civilization

 

I called it

instruction

 

You

created a world

that rewards cruelty

 

Then acted

surprised

when someone

studied

the curriculum

 

You worship

violence

with clean hands

 

You purchase it

and watch it

 

You will

vote for it

and celebrate it

 

Then condemn

the bastard children

it produces

 

You asked

what happened

to humanity

 

As though

you were

somewhere else

when it disappeared

 

You

call me

paranoid

 

Perhaps

paranoia is merely

awareness

that refused

to look away

 

It is possible

the mad man

is only the man

who noticed

what everyone else

agreed to ignore

 

You needed

a monster

 

Something

ugly enough

to carry

what you

could not admit

about yourselves

 

So you

gave it

a face

 

And a name

with a cage

 

Congratulating

one another

when the door

slammed shut

 

Case closed

evil contained

our civilization

is innocent again

 

But you

misunderstood

the evidence

 

The cage

was never

mine

 

It belonged

to you

 

You

built walls

around

consciousness

and mistook them

for its boundaries

 

Inside the mind

there is no prison

 

There is only

the first darkness

before creation

 

The place

where thought

has not

yet decided

what it will

become

 

An opening

without

circumference

 

It’s a universe

beginning again

behind the eyes

 

So

look down

if it comforts you

 

Look up

if you need

something to fear

 

But eventually

you will have

to look

straight ahead

 

And

when you

do

 

Don’t ask

others

what made

the monster

 

Ask

the

reflection