Give Us

(Dateci)

Give us something to destroy
A corolla, a silent corner,
A boon companion, a magistrate
A telephone booth.
A journalist, a renegade
A fan of the opposing team
A lamp post, a manhole cover
a bench.
Give us something to deface:
A plaster wall, the Mona Lisa,
A mudguard, a tombstone.
Give us something to rape:
A timid girl,
A flower bed, ourselves.
Don't despise us;
We're heralds, and prophets.
Give us something that burns,
offends, cuts, smashes, fouls
And makes us feel we exist.
Give us a club or a Nagant.
Give us a syringe or a Suzuki
Pity us.

Primo Levi