8000 Years Standing Still

There is an ethnicity in it, a creed
as visible as the graphic trauma it
breeds upon – this is the culture
of violence. In 8000 years we’ve

diverged scarcely an inch from it,
rather we’ve refined the ways we
insanely kill each other with diverse
and creative skill. In the nurseries

of our schools and playgrounds we
rehearse battle drills which pave the
pathways to our Nations’ illustrious
graveyards. And you stand in the

crush of your fellow man, hemmed
in by structures tall enough to be
modern towers of Babel talking
the same brutal kill-or-be-killed

braille. You will claim to be free of
prejudice; bear no ill-will to any
man of any nation, race or religion.
This is the specious veneer, the

stamp of civilization – a barefaced
denial of 8000 years standing still.
© 1 June 2007, I.D. Carswell