Swizzle Stick

Intrusive

Should I give in to those intrusive thoughts
Spontaneous, immoral, dark & wild?
Should I give in to impulse, give it shape,
And do what impulse tells me, like a child?

To throw myself quite neatly down the stairs,
To leap with gay abandon on the tracks;
To slap a stranger, push them to the ground,
To shove a silver knife into their back?

Oh violence, do not tempt me, do not call.
I wish no harm on others, or myself.
Oh sudden thoughts of punch & push & fall,
Retreat with unheard footsteps, go with stealth.

I don’t give in to such intrusive thoughts.
Experience their shock, but I won’t act.
The private flash of violence is not sought -
I’ll only box with shadows, & with tact.