Now We Fight

February 5, 2020

There’s a fight. In the middle of a square. People crowd, people shout, people scream...loud. Just two men fighting. Their bodies hitting the pavement and back up into the air again and again. The fight is almost dance-like. It’s beautiful and yet so terrifying. Why is no one doing anything? Just a lot of mindless shouting. The men throw fists and sometimes grab tight. It’s a violent but almost magical scene. Until one of the men’s fists barrels straight into the other man’s face.

That man falls to the ground. He hits his head hard, on the impact and a pool of thick goopy blood surrounds his ears. The crowd grows silent now. For a moment they are scared, but then they act. The crowd unknowingly attacks the last man standing. They force him to the ground. They tear his clothes and skin from his body. Deep red and black marks of blood form upon his surface. The punishment is far worse than the other man’s blood-soaked skull. 

Only a few tend to the other man, in need of serious medical help now. The rest continue to rip the man limb from limb. His body is almost apart from him now. The mob is so violent they have reduced the man to a bare body with limited limbs and unhealable gashes that pour milk-like blood. The mob is bloodied now. They are violent and have a taste. They are unstoppable and gone. They are, for the better lack of a word, angry.

A bystander to the chaos recalls the inception of the men’s brutal fight. The bystander, on their phone, says: “And all over a piece of coin.” Sirens blare in the background like soothing music. The aftermath is described as disturbing and unheard of...until now. Someone far away reads of it. They sip their coffee and say to themselves: “Why is that the way we think to treat people?” The rest of us are silent. We carry on. We wait.

Until the next now...