VIOLENCE
February 27, 2021

Violence starts at home
Violence starts
When you are willing
To burn cherished friendships
On the altar of precious opinions

Violence starts
When you shut out and silence those
Who happen not to inhabit
The machinations
Of your mind
Of your convictions
Of your articles of faith

Violence starts
When you prefer to look
For the grand oppressor
Out there
While the petty tyrant
Inhabiting your heart
Whispers in your ear
Whispers and whispers
Incessantly
Until you believe
His utterings
Believe them to be
The voice of reason
Or
The voice of love
Or even the voice
Of your very own heart

And that is
The point of no return
When justifications rise
Rise to still
The remaining stirrings
Of your conscience
While offering up
Your true north
To the self-righteously
Indignant
To the self-righteously
Outraged
To the self-righteously
Wronged
The self-righteously
Deeply wronged
Utterly offended
By those
Who would dare follow
The dictates of their own heart

Their own heart
Open
Open by its very nature
Open to listen
Open
To give the previously unthinkable
The benefit of consideration
The benefit of the doubt
The benefit of validity
When offered
By those dear to them
Or when offered by wise men
Even
If not of their own conviction

And thus those voices
Those voices other than your own
Are stilled
Are cancelled
With Machiavellian fervour
Those other voices, ideas and experiences
Are silenced
Burned on the altar
Of expedient censorship
Burned like the ideas
The art and the music
Of The Other
Burned like the undesirable books
Of last century
Burned as a prelude
To the burning of Jews

A prelude
To the burning of Gypsies
A prelude
To the burning of Gays
A mere prelude
To the burning
Of the Deplorables

Yet in allowing the vilification
And the glorified burning
Of the inconvenient
You too are removed
Removed
From the wonders
Hidden in the caverns of your mind
The true wonders
Only revealed when you allow
The unfamiliar
The unknown
That which has not been
Incessantly regurgitated
And that which is other than
Tepidly digested news
Proffered up as Truth

In allowing this vilification
Of The Other
You are removed
From the doorways
To mysteries

Mysteries
Hidden underneath
Every single storyline
Of Truth
Hidden underneath
The place-keeper
Of all that is waiting
To be discovered

©2021 Fella Cederbaum