Where does Terror Live?

Where does terror live? Does it live in a house of fear?
Does it sleep with siblings of frustration and want and hopelessness?

Who bore terror?
Was it born from a union of hate and ignorance?
Is it nurtured and fed by deceit and lies?

What does terror want? Does it want to dominate?
Does it want liberation from domination?

How does terror thrive and grow?
Perhaps it looks for friends like itself to talk to and bind to.
Maybe it feels stronger to meet others like itself.

How does terror manage to be so well accepted?
Does it make sense when it speaks of its justifications?
Does it sound strong and reasonable?

Having grown, how does it manage to mature and develop?
How does it become institutionalized and taught?
How so practiced and deft in its manifestation?

Does terror blossom into itself
and grow two or more heads and bodies?
Most things grow and reproduce when well fed and protected.
Can this be so?

Maybe terror starts to find a home everywhere
then becomes familiar and relaxed in the neighborhood.
Fear, Hate, Ignorance, Want, Frustration
and all the other branches of the family tree,
then have a chance to grow.

Is the neighborhood inside the heart of a child?
The mind of a leader? The hand of a soldier?
A body of government?

Maybe it has never tasted the flavor of tolerance
or felt the soothing relief of an exhalation,
that leaves patience waiting to breathe again

Perhaps terror does not know how to raise
a family with compassion and love.
It probably has rarely seen such a thing.
Do we have any pictures in our wallets
that we can show it?
Or stories to tell it when it comes to the door?

I remember some.

But I can't think of where they might be.
In the bottom of my closet? In my dark, dank basement?
Why would they be there?
I can't find them, they must be there.
But I can't get to them, I am afraid of the dark.
It terrifies me.