The Tyranny of Stupid

When your very last day arrives

their violence

their lust

their killing

and their laughter

will be all you have left.

They will be the last

you see

and feel

and hear

as they extinguish you.

But long, long before your final humiliation

you must suffer denigration

of everything you believe in

everything you respect and love

You too will know how we felt

we the ordinary

we the educated

we the moral

the likes of you and me

before our fears came knocking

before our darkness that preceded your own.

Imagine our incredulity

our disgust

our anger

our doubts

our cowardice

when first we saw

Brown-shirted hoodlums

beat up scapegoats in the streets.

When violence was still too novel

to imagine we’d be next.

And then imagine the epiphany

in our insides

when the violence

arrived for us

a cold rush of fear

orders barked by violent, primitive thugs

gleeful in the delirium of their impunity.

Cruel men

stupid men

men with the full backing of a pitiless state.

Men who ‘disappeared’ us

off the streets

from our homes

from our places of work

with vulgar depravity

and casual violence

and schadenfreude.

If we as much as moved a muscle.  

You too will fear men

you only ever disdained

not for their despicable acts

but for their lack of compassion

for their incapacity to reason

for their blunt stupidity.

They will become your masters

like they became ours

because the likes of you

to them are vermin.

From this point onwards

as you watch but do nothing

they grow stronger

more resourceful

more confident

more ruthless

more violent

more brutal.

And when your final day arrives

which it will

no one will be there

to bid you farewell

because you are already long abandoned

to the cowardice of the likes of you.

Only they will be there

large and callous

reeking with arrogance

chortling at your final humiliation

as they herd you into the death pen

like the sheep you have always been.

The End