Hit Me!

by Atiba Sealy-Thompson

Hit Me! I dare you iya,

Become enslaved by rage and succumb to the fiyah,

Behind your eyes,

Where the real truth lies,

I can imagine the flame is hot like dragons,

But we both know there’s no demons hidin.

Because what I see is as clear as can be,

A broken hearted boy surrounded by negative energy,

He curses at me who he sees as his enemy,

This boy once had joy, but that's a long story.

Like the story about toys, he doesn’t see,

That he’s got a friend in me.

That's right we’re friends, more like brothers,

A brotherhood formed by the sisterhood of our mothers

Bout now that bond hangs by a thread when one friend discovers,

That the other and the girl he loves, had now become lovers.

Affairs of the heart are a dangerous kind,

The heart and the brain are intricately entwined,

Emotions rise and tensions climb,

Chemicals combine and then what you find,

Is that you become blind,

And lose sight of your true self,

And succumb to the dark side.

Hit me b! Hit me den!

Beat me til my face turn red,

He might hit me just once with all his rage and his strength,

Settle this quickly and then talk like real men

Or he could hit me again,

and Again, AND AGAIN, AND-

You think this is bad?

It could be worse,

I could be dead and end up in hearse,

He could’ve put a gun to my head,

Hesitating to kill his one true friend,

Shaking and thinking and creating suspense,

Eventually he would pull the trigger and then,

That would be my game over, my final chapter, my... The End

That’s how most of these things go,

The flame of life extinguished by a single blow,

A single pull of a trigger and the eyes start to lose their glow.

Nothing, not even the winds of change can change the flow,

Especially when it’s a murder,

And I’m not talking about crows.

But luckily, that's not my situation,

I can change my fate by simple persuasion,

My story will not end with the raining of tears, no precipitation

All I need is to calm him down and have a conversation,

All I need is emotional communication.

So I say, I’m sorry, that was just a rumor going around town,

I know that’s your girl, I would never mess around,

His anger fades and he puts his fists down,

I took that as him saying that he forgives me,

I’m so glad that he didn’t hit me.

Gun violence, well, all violence needs to be eradicated,T

his poem is not a lie that was simply fabricated,

A lot conflict can be avoided if we talk instead of getting aggravated,

The goal of a situation like this should be for tension to be deescalated.

I end with a quote from Tae’s song ‘Stop de Violence’ ,

“Violence not good for we country, nor economy, nor de family. So stop de violence.”

That’s why we must make peace, talk it out, and not foster hatred.

And this... is how violence... is eradicated.