Nature v. Nurture

I was born crying

Before I could think

I cried with an intensity 

That could only be achieved with a brain incapable of control or predetermined self censoring

In the thinking man

Doubts have evolved so brilliantly 

That they nearly precede the stimuli

Which they have developed to mitigate

In contrast, the liberated youth 

may allow themselves to be inhibited by the external, the unexpected. 

I learned to be hurt before I learned to rationalize the sensation of pain

This gift came from an external source

The tears preceded, and were sustained, until Lady Sorrow came and wiped them away

The thinking man deals differently, she said.

You must learn to murder

Find your solace in your plunder

Replace your tears with the tears of others

I refused 

And took refuge with fellow victims of man

Think, for a moment, of what happens when a family takes in a feral pet

Alongside the love that grows with the animals ever-stretching limbs 

Festers a fear which is rooted in the very DNA of the beast:

Something which overrules the nurturing,

And for which death is the only reasonable solution

See, the animal has been rendered incapable of assuming what nurture has stolen

And subsequently been endowed by nature 

with the power to destroy everything he has come to hold dear.

The aforementioned youth will be released from the company of his fellow victims, under the guise of assumed strength 

and the actuality of fear of his developing power.

One day, he will turn away from this swath of betrayal toward the mirror and see his attacker shrug off their similarities.

On that day, he will be all of his fears, embodied.