de-escalation in poetry

I don’t believe in “The Chicago Way”

I don’t believe in “he pulls a knife, you get a gun”
“he sends one of yours to the hospital,
you send one of his to the morgue”
it doesn’t work in the real world
it just ramps up the violence
just gets everyone more armed
more twitchy more paranoid
more ready to kill for less reason
The Chicago Way only works in movies
in bad television and even worse books
I believe instead in de-escalation
I believe in something that actually works

Here’s what I believe:

they pull a gun? you get a knife
they pull a knife? you get a bat
they pull a bat? you get a ball
they pull a ball? you get a glove
they get a glove? have a catch together and fall in love
make yourselves some kids, one of you be the wife
cutting your wedding cake the only use for a knife
melt the guns down for a jungle gym on which to play
defeat fear with love
that’s the de-escalation way
and in the real world
that actually works
actually works today

Last updated June 15, 2017