Thursday, December 25, 2014

Lesson Plan for Small Child

To kill slowly with the hand
alone,
first locate
an area that is significant,
such as for breathing.
The nose will do.

Smash upwards
with the heel of the hand.
If done correctly, blood will
thickly flow.

The mouth is hardly worth your time.
Unless you think you can
break teeth.

The throat is better.

Jab with the fingers,
making them a knife.
More than once.
Collapse an Adam's Apple.

Don't consider ribs beneath you.
They don't break easy, but bruise
a treat, and make every breath
a labor.
And the sternum is the seat
of a lot of nerve--
and just at the nib
of the sternum
is the xiphoid process.

A heart punch can be
most artfully done
with a two-knuckled punch
up and aimed in. Causing
extraordinary damage.

I only taught the nephews
how to unlock a wrist hold,
to unhinge a thumb and
make fingers splay
to drop a knife,
the knowledge to do more
quivering in my head.

But they listened as I
splayed their fingers with
my thumb because
I spoke with the knowledge
of other things--

Which one either ought to know,
or needn't and I
can't say which.

They are useful,
and for my part,
I learned them young.

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