Belligerence Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

The best defense against a childish belligerence,
Is neither responding with indifferent silence.
Nor pretending a tolerance.
That nibbles to chip away,
What remnants remain of one's integrity.
But a standing back to ask anyone,
Who may have noticeable patience left...
If they too have become,
Tired of the revolving nonstop nonsense.
To realize it to recognize,
That behavior like this attracts those too crazed.
And gone unnoticed it is,
The ease to participate with others who salivate...
A comfort of what mental illness has become.

There is no need to explain or defend against it.
Although difficult it is,
To keep one's distance away from it.
With a letting go of those diseased in mind,
Heat to burn what is on internally.
Until the energy supplied and relied upon,
Becomes exhausted at their loss.
And their own cost to pay.
Since with it to step back and witness,
Those caught up in the nonsense of belligerence...
Are too far beyond hearing to listen,
To what anyone still claiming to be sane.
With an offering of an alternative.
That does not include,
Setting fire to one's brain.
Until it too,
Becomes meaningless to make attempts...
By anyone empathetic to try to save.
A craze like this,
Will eventually extinguish itself.
Eventually.