/lit/ - Literature

a lad with a whip moved toward a donkey
the donkey brayed melodramatically
the lad lifted the whip but it was clearly a whip designed
for an adult to use.
the old man had said to whip the donkey, and he sat a distance away
on the porch, the tip of a wheat plant hanging from his mouth.
he ordered this of the boy
for entertainment purposes, for he was old and cantankerous
and loved to see a youth perform a pointless act of brutality.
yet when he say the youth unable to wield the heavy leather whip
he felt anger
and moved to the boy, with disappointment
and the boy felt two things
one, he felt glad he did not have to whip the donkey
yet he felt scared of the old man, for the old man's wickedness was glaring
like sun in his eyes.
and he felt the man rip the whip from the his hand
and the man yelled for the lad to stand aside and watch! look here!
and the old man whipped the donkey, which could not run,
being tied to a post,
and he whipped the donkey again and again,
til blood, from the donkey
and sweat, from the shrivelled, fervent man
dripped on the baked sand, fallow ground, weeds.
the lad cried,
and the man called him a sissy. go to your room, then, sissy!
play your video games! drink your soda,
you are no kin to me!
the boy entered his room, began playing an online game
and yelled obscenities to his teammates and enemies
that would make the old man very proud, indeed.