20151222 (pain)

Palestinian child injured in Gaza bombing

I’ve had a few times in my life

To think seriously about pain.

For the most part I don’t like it.

That’s the general consensus.

But give the devil his due there’s

Nothing like it to make you aware

Your hand’s been on a hot stove 

Or the fall broke your upper arm

When what you intended was to

Use your arm to break your fall.

Another case of “whether the stone

Hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits

The stone, it’s bad news for the

Pitcher.” I fell off a ladder onto

The corner of a table for laying

Out sewing patterns. Hit it with

My middle spine. Slipped on

Some ice near the corner of 

My house last winter. Knocked

The breath out of me but I ended

Up lying in the snow for about

Half an hour for the pain to stop.

There were others worthy of

Mention but the point’s been made:

Were we not to feel pain we’d

Be very short lived as individuals,

Species, killing ourselves without 

Meaning to—we’d be absolutely

Careless, walk too close to

Propellers, falling boulders, the

Like before we could ever spawn,

Pass on those worthless genes to

Another generation doomed to

Die before procreating. So that

Is that. We’d have to feel pain

Which would get worse the greater

The damage. That’s the “good” side

Of pain—short and sweet—like

The Red Cross nurse would tell

Me “You’ll feel a little pinch.”

It would sting but I’d not cry out.

I couldn’t tell what or how much

Pain my father suffered from his 

Colon cancer. My mom died of

Three rapid-fire strokes I don’t

Know if what she felt was at all

Painful. But I could sense her 

Frustration with her inability to

Find words. Then there’s the 

Pain of torture. I could cite

Torquemada, the SS, numerous

Others but since our own CIA 

Specialists in torture who taught 

Central American police how to 

Extract confessions in El Salvador

In Iraq, Afghanistan, Black sites,

Are of such recent memory and

Still in practice at Guantanamo,

Let’s just use them. Uncle Vito 

May break your fingers but that’s

Business—you missed a payment.

Political torture is after your soul.

If you die, they’ll leave your body 

In the street, an example for the 

Next guy who wants social justice. 

Unthinking we take God to task 

For making us feel pain. What 

Began as a tool to keep us intact 

Led to all this disfigurement,

Political pain. Did God crawl up

On the cross to say to us, “I’m 

Sorry for pain, but there was no 

Other way.”

c. J.S.Manista, 2015