La Violencia

History is written by

violence. We’re all tattooed

by the violence of our lives,

scarred by the becoming who

we are through violent means.

Growing is an aggressive stretching

of bones through years of adolescent

aches and awkwardness, it’s a ripping

and tearing away of the old and building

anew over youth.

The journey of our bodies, from skinned

knees and elbows, split lips to acne, to

thinning hair, to weight control; all of

it is violent. The magic of life, but

violent nonetheless.

We’re all covered in the marks of

becoming who we are; cuts, bruises,

scrapes, scars, missing teeth, bad eyes,

sore knees, painful backs. A terrorized

victim of violent times and changes.

It’s in our minds, as the pain fueled

lessons of corporal punishments, spankings,

standing in a corner, holding dictionaries in

both outstretched arms for as long as possible

for talking in class instead of learning about Plato.

The experience crafts us into the

embodiment of violence.  We often

say the ends often justify the means, because

the brutal violence of our own becoming was just

normal. It was what was done and to be dealt with.

I think that’s why we can find violence distasteful,

and fear it or demand it’s end, but we tolerate it.

Tolerate it to such a point that it just becomes so

normal. Because we were formed from it in one

way or another. Like aching bones growing.

The universe exploded violently into

existence. The Earth was pummeled by

meteors and volcanic upheaval, evolution

was cruel and a constant struggle to just

survive.

The violence of our history is written

in our blood and bones.  It made us.

It defined us. It elevated the strong, devoured

the weak, culled the herd, and exposed us

to be carved by time.

Maybe we think the violence in the streets,

is just part of the violence of growing up,

maybe the violent murder of others is just

the painful process of maturing as a species;

something to bear as we grow up and are marked.

And don’t we all already know the axiom,

“Violence begets Violence”, but continue with it

anyway. Even our entertainment is based on

the human history of violence. Overcoming

violent adversity towards catharsis. 

It has made us.

We keep letting it.

Blood in the streets

until the lesson is learned.