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 fuck
who scream &
who die---
delight in the mayhem.