Cruelty is not done.
It is not performed
or committed.
No, cruelty is
inhabited.
It is not an action
but a disposition,
a genetic inheritance,
an inescapable
fatal flaw,
scratched through the skin,
growing in the marrow.
You are good.
You are righteous.
It is as indelible a fact
as the cruelty of those
who hurt you.
It shines from
your eyes,
pours from
your skin.
And to prove your
righteous goodness,
you must call cruelty
to order.
Merciless, unkind
order.
You must make
them hurt. Make
them suffer. Make
them beg. Make
them cry and wish
for death.
Don’t worry.
Don’t hesitate.
You are good.
You are righteous.
And righteous goodness
can never be cruel.
Least of all
when it puts the sword
on their necks.
Least of all
when it cheers
at the sight
of their rolling heads.
Laura Fair-Schulz, Tree.
This poem originally appeared in Locust Review 13 (Winter 2025/2026)
Alexander Billet is a writer based in Los Angeles. They’ve written for Jacobin, Salvage, Los Angeles Review of Books, In These Times, Real Life, Popula, Protean, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, Historical Materialism blog, Radical Art Review, Chicago Review, Against the Current, and others. Their book book, Shake the City: Experiments In Space and Time, Music and Crisis, was published in late 2022 through 1968 Press. It has been translated into Portuguese and published by Sobinfluencia Edições with the title Abalar a Cidade – Música e Capitalismo, Espaço e Tempo. They are an editor at Locust Review.