DO NOT START

You’d have to commit new violence to salvage

the wreckage left by the previous violence.

In this way you would produce new hatred until

hatred is everywhere, as thick as smog.

You’d have to tell a bigger lie

to cover up the previous lie.

In this way lies expand and multiply,

becoming huge like

a mountain or a country.

There are things that, once you start,

can drain your humanity.