Violence - Parquet Courts

Violence is the fruit of unreached understanding that flowers from the lips of

scoundrels

It is a forest so dense and rooted in our past

It tempts us to become lost in its darkness

And stinks like the piss test you were forced to take

Just before you were told that you didn’t meet

The standards of integrity that this organization strives to maintain

Why are there no folk songs about ATM machines

That produce the likeness of the blazer of the trail of tears

Issuing overdraft fees from beyond the grave

Prison TV shows in an endless queue

Containing the robust nourishment of a commissary

This is why we cannot afford to close an open casket

You protect no one by obscuring the mirror that reflects our own problematic

reality

Allow me to ponder the role I play

In this pornographic spectacle of black death

At once a solution and a problem

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret

Violence is daily life

A promise, a pact that the world never kept

Violence is daily life

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret

Violence is daily life

A promise, a pact that the world never kept

Violence is daily life

Violence is daily life

Violence happens every day

It’s hard to get used to getting used to violence

Savage is my name because Savage is how I feel

When the radio wakes me up with the words «suspected gunman»

My name is a warning for the acts you are about to witness

Which contain images that some viewers may find disturbing

My name belongs to us all

So if they ask for yours give them mine

My name is a threat

«Riot» is an unfinished grave that was dug to deposit undepleted anger

Like barrels of uranium leaking into something sacred

It is a word to use to delegitimize your unrest

And to make your resistance into an overreaction

The pink tube of paint called flesh

Used in portraits of chairmen of boards and

Men who clean up streets named after those who fought

For erasing the lives they now claim to protect

What is an up and coming neighborhood and where is it coming from?

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret

Violence is daily life

A promise, a pact that the world never kept

Violence is daily life

A cause, an effect, a rejoice, a regret

Violence is daily life

A promise, a pact that the world never kept

Violence is daily life

Much like the air you breathe

The water you drink

Violence is so omnipresent

So ingrained in your daily reality

You forget to notice it happens everyday