Infantilized

They are our fathers. They are the quick hand that will slap. The quick word. Any behavior that is out of place. They are The Name of the Father. And we, we are their unloved children. They look for the wayward. The strange car, the colored hair. What have we been up to today? What will they catch? Our fingers sticky with jelly? They look, and they find.
They are the men with unlimited power. The power of the bullet, the license to kill, maim and hurt. It is part of the job. It is part of the power. It is the power. They are the wielders of force. The mighty slap that will send us back in line.
We are the society of eternal childhood. The culture of the church, the culture of the flock, the followers. We need the structure. We need something to fall into, something to believe in, something to follow. This is a country of laziness, and because of the inability of the mind to work for itself, we need them to provide our outline.
We need others to explain and punish. We keep these ropes. We help them tie them. We are the sheep, fully mobile, but not awake.
Fathers in blue. They look for their wayward sons. Without a glimmer of mother, without a speck of softness, they punish the misbehavior. They punish the realm of the chaotic. They need lines. They make lines, they want lines.
The palate is black and white. The lines are thick and black and there is either right or wrong. There is no room for the blurry vision of a new dream. Life must be lived within the bars.
The territory is marked and clear and not even a toe should venture into the limits beyond the known world of sight and lines and simple color.
Do not shout back, do not cry. There will always be more steel. More bars. More swift action against the streaming world of the chaotic.
They watch. They do not miss. Your vision was illegal. Your march was wrong. Your hopes naïve. Your actions unconscionable.
They hold it all on their hips. Power requires only a second’s thought. Force is what they hold. This is what they have. Brute. Steel. With rightness wedged between.
Stay within the bars. It is safe. It is known. It is right. The world has been clearly defined. There are boundaries, step outside and there are no rules.
Power must maintain order.