For today’s poem, I used one of Kelli Russell Agodon’s NaPoWriMo prompts:
Open the closest book to you to page 46. Count down 7 lines. That is the first line or the title of your poem.
The closest book to me was a copy of Emily Post’s ETIQUETTE; the line in question contained the wonderful fragment that I’ve used for the title, and as one of the lines in the poem itself. It opened up an interesting way to explore the question of male privilege, and how that privilege harms not only women, but men themselves.
boys don’t cry
because emotion
is
foreign
sissy-stuff
only girls–
irrational and
silly
sweet, with sugar
and spice smiles,
countless neuroses
bubbling over
feelings that
explode–
ever experience.
boys become mentough
strong
softness has
no place with them.
and these are the lies that we are fed
the falsehoods that
entrap
ensnare
justify a world where
women cannot lead
and men cannot feel
two different species
perpetually estranged
but even under these conditions man can revealsinew and bone
muscle and tissue
a heart that
squeezes
flexes
contracts
trembles with the enormity of
love
and desire that
is more than
skin-deep
because we are strongerwhen we can be whole
when we can
transcend
the myths that
hamper
constrain
damage
and we are more powerful
when the old dualities
male/female
rational/irrational
mind/body
dark/light
are dashed to dust
for then only
love
will remain.
