Letter or Spirit?

Thou shalt not kill, they say.

But there’s an exception

for spiders, right?

And mosquitos and cockroaches.

And squirrels that plague the garden.

And some people. 

What about the black boy

whose hands I can’t see?

He’s big.

He looks dangerous.

Or the man who proclaims “Allahu akbar”?

“God is great.”

Or the wife who doesn’t obey?

Thou shalt not kill.

My hands are clean.

I only beat ‘em when they don’t listen.

They gotta learn.

I never laid a hand,

only ripped her up with words.

Sticks and stones…

She cut.

She bled.

She lived.

She gotta toughen up.

Thou shalt not kill.

I never killed nobody.

They hurt ‘cause they deserved it. 

And they still alive.