He’s the god who watches over you,
making sure you get what you deserve,
forcing you to your knees
while you spit blood.
Cruelty imagines a better world
in which to punish you
sending plagues of locusts
and fire to scorch the earth
you walk on. Praise cruelty—
he’s always there when you need him
listening to your woes and snickering,
“You’ll never be the same,” he says,
“so why cry about it?”
Cruelty relishes your humiliations
just as you relish humiliating others.
He shouts at you, spitting in your face.
Cruelty takes you at your word,
then lies about what you said.
He wants you all to himself.
He takes your hand and walks
you through the past until you’ve had enough
of your own history to last a lifetime.
Praise cruelty:
He promises you a great return
on your dollar—“a little goes
a long way”—and delivers.
Stick with him and you’ll go places.
No depression for you, only rage.
You’ll dance on the graves
of your enemies, but only after
they dance on you.
Jeff Friedman’s newest book, The Marksman, will be published by Carnegie Mellon University Press in fall 2020. He is the author of seven previous poetry collections, including Floating Tales and Pretenders. Friedman’s poems, mini stories and translations have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, New England Review, Poetry International, Hotel Amerika, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish Poetry, Flash Fiction Funny, Flash Nonfiction Funny, Solstice Literary Magazine, New World Writing. The New Republic and numerous other literary magazines. His rewards include a National Endowment Literature Translation Fellowship in 2016 and two individual Artist Grants from New Hampshire Arts Council.
