The powerful man
Pitchfork-armed, chasing the girl
Tine-first, ready to strike
She is today’s unfortunate rage object
Hapless, wrongless victim
Weaponless, shieldless casualty
He is blind privilege righteous
Incandescent from his
latest, baseless, graceless
gotcha!
Forehead veins pulse sickly blue-green
Gas giant magnitude pupils
Each aperture an onyx void
Irony in sympathetic nervous system arousal
If he can wound her
– really break her,
he will quiet that feeling
The one that creeps and gnaws
Whisper screaming
Especially at night
Impossible conscience
Poor Jiminy Cricket
Eyes sticky with tears
Best efforts in vain
How do we retain compassion?
Scaffold empathy?
Bolster sanity?
While absorbing the violence
Of the man who flattens his beer cans
with a hydraulic pancake car crusher
who cuts his delicate finger sandwiches
with a restored 1790s guillotine
who sets his table
with longsword steak knives
and matching pitchforks
a set, for special occasions
Vast energy required to remain soft
When distant and diamond hard
Is the path of no resistance
All this energy
Feels wasted
Why can’t we collect it?
Battery store it?
Pitchfork narcissist anode
Empath cathode
Could power a city
Energy crisis solved