The mean man was yelling at his wife and kid.
Maybe they weren’t married.
Maybe he just found a random woman and child to abuse.
Maybe he hired them out for the purpose.
I’d rather that, really, but if so, what a lousy gig.
Probably his family, though.
Almost certainly.

They seemed scared,
but kind of used to it.
The son was cowering.
So was the woman,
but she also seemed to have a patience about her,
like if she waited this out,
things would go back to normal,
whatever normal would be.

He didn’t look like he was laying hands on anyone,
though he gestures were excited and spastic.
They didn’t go near either of the two smaller folk.
It was a fucked up enough scene without physical violence getting involved.

I didn’t want to be seeing what I did, let alone…

Anyway, it looked pretty awful,
what he was doing, even if it was just shouting,
and even if it was a cartoon.