by Ameera Es-Sabar
what does violence mean in the context of today?
does it mean a light at the end of tomorrow?
is it the only way that there can be a tomorrow?
who does violence inflict its wrath upon?
them
or
us
or
them and us
is violence the only way?
is pacifism futile
in a world where shouts cannot be heard over the
sounds of bullets ricocheting off of
rooftops and
children screaming as
their mothers and fathers
bleed
in the face of
rape and
exploitation and
capitalist violence and
on and
on and
on
it
goes
in
a world where
the subordinated
have been
beaten and
beaten and
beaten
down
abused
misused
forgotten
what does peace mean in
a world like this
what is peace? does it exist?
or is violence the only reality?
the only answer
to survival
what i see today is
the absence of
soul
the absence of
empathy
of
humanity
and the gluttony, the
excess
of
power
they call us uncivilized?
when
they
are the ones eating us alive
when
they
are the ones draining us of
life
is
violence
the only way to
survive
in a world where
pe
ace
has been ridiculed,
continuously annihilated
broken down
at the hands of monsters,
maneaters,
manipulators,
self-proclaimed martyrs
where
protests
are only considered peaceful
if we don’t speak
where
posts
are taken down
if they say too much
where narratives
are only legitimate if they
conform to one script
conform to the script
they say we can
“peacefully protest,”
go ahead
so long as you
do not get in the way of
power
so long as you refrain from
exerting control,
from actually posing a threat
to the system
so long as you are
civil
and yet,
they can’t imagine a world without
violence
for they have created
this world of
violence
a world of genocide and
occupation and
borders and
“entitlement” and
theft
a white man’s world
built by and for them
with our hands
brainwashing us,
making us see ourselves
the way they see us
making us hate ourselves and one another
the way they hate us
turning us against each other
the way they have always been against us
is
violence
the only way to
survive
in a world absent of
p
e
a c
e
?
LSESU AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 