Noted In Passing

Too true — it feels good
to swing a hand
and connect with a
hard yet crackable jaw.

Hard for some people
to get this:  most
criminals I’ve known
had mountain-high self esteem.

That war thing, the one
where we rush into it singing?
We’ve tried for years to stop it,
and it keeps coming up.

Anger, said the Dalai Lama,
is unnatural,
yet every baby I’ve ever seen
knew from birth how to make a fist.

We cannot be
the enlightened ones
when we can’t even speak truth
about who we are.

Ignore the gurus
and prophets.  We’re killers
to the core and deep down,
we know it.

What we do to survive
is form societies,
then learn to kill
inside their lines.

About Tony Brown

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A poet with a history in slam, lots of publications; my personal poetry and a little bit of daily life and opinions. Read the page called "About..." for the details. View all posts by Tony Brown

2 responses to “Noted In Passing

  • Cells Moving Neurons Firing's avatar wisperin9shad0s

    kind of a scary thought, but agrees with the idea that man and woman are animal, let heaven and earth and all intelligence try to deny that. kind of an old fashioned idea, though – or maybe everyone around me specifically just wants to be all sensitive and worry about being a good person

    • Tony Brown's avatar Tony Brown

      I just think that denial is not helpful, and the evidence points toward this conclusion more than others. Of course, we are also capable of great generosity and kindness…but both tendencies exist side by side.

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