All the King's Men

-
Labels are fables
that do not define
Swagger and daggers,
not fancies of mine
Bludgeoned in dungeons,
mistook for a swine
All just because
I was born as a guy

"Swinger!" A ringer
for my gender's sake
Players and haters
rub off their mistakes
"Single, go mingle!"
"Your smile must be fake."
"It's 'cause you're a man!"
Please give me a break!

Tempests, the tempted
go out on the prowl
Hunting the hunted
-- the damsels -- like fowl
Using, abusing
their strength with a scowl
And I, a guy...
should I throw in the towel?

Handsome and then some:
he must be a cad
Silent and private:
intentions are bad
Friendly: he's deadly
in deception clad
This man wasn't raised
that way by his dad!

Yet truly and duly
brothers have erred
Eons of peons,
and casual words
Painted and tainted
the masculine herd
I am just a guy
enlightened and stirred

Paltry, a small tree
of all the King's men
Tepid, intrepid
again and again
Weighted, sedated
no rush to the pen
All things considered
I still am a man

Image and visage
they do not suffice
Meaning, not preening
look into my eyes
Know one for no one
can be that precise
Manhood, there's still good
you must realize

Comments

  1. JucySeptember 14, 2018 at 5:18 PM

    “Handsome and then some:
    he must be a cad
    Silent and private:
    intentions are bad
    Friendly: he's deadly
    in deception clad”

    A victim of stereotypes, casualty of generalizations? Why do people tend to fear (or criticize) what they do not understand?

    (Nice one! 😊)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MichaelSeptember 14, 2018 at 5:23 PM

    #TheStuggleOfBeingAManIsReal

    I get a lot of "he's a guy, therefore he must be like the rest" kind of judgnents from people...
    ...
    ...in church.


    Thanks. Appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MichaelSeptember 14, 2018 at 7:29 PM

    Hahaha

    Vindication will come. 😊

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paris: Cinquième Partie

-
Image
The rest of my seven-and-a-half hour tour of Paris was like a whirlwind trip to wonderland with a little bit of a suspense-horror vibe going on. Why, you might ask? Well, I arrived from Maastricht at around four in the afternoon. The sun was getting low and the darkness of the cold mid-winter night in the French capital was slowly creeping in. So, after about 30 to 45 minutes of just being mesmerized by the Eiffel Tower and its peripherals, I proceeded with my self-made itinerary, using the river Seine as my main point of reference. On my list of spots to briefly visit and take pictures of (and with) were the Louvre , Cathedrale Notre-Dame , Champ Elysees , and the Arc de Triomphe ... all of which I crammed into my walking tour. I make it first to the Louvre after Tour Eiffel. The museum was already closed, but I wasn't really there to see its interiors; I was after its very interesting external architecture. Perhaps I came at the right time of the day because both of th
Read more

Letdown

-
Image
It's really hard running into people with a very fixed, one-sided view of things that are very intricate and multi-faceted. Really hard! I can't understand -- if we're feeding off from the same source material and being taught by the same teachers -- why some people still choose to cling to a piece of the pie and insist to everyone else that their piece IS THE WHOLE PIE! This is probably the reason why the body of Christ is as fractured as it is today: too many people upholding one biblical truth and taking it to the extreme... mowing down other truths AND PEOPLE in their wake. I once taught about this during one of our services, echoing what I have learned from my pastor (and from other pastors online and off) that there is a danger in going to extremes when it comes to scriptural principles. The Word of God is so rich, so powerful and so full of many beautiful facets of spiritual life that fit together to make a whole. Human as we are, we have a tendency to p
Read more

#ChallengeAccepted

-
Image
There are many days in my line of work when I get to do little to no work at all. These kinds of days allow me to write (more) and relax. However, the opposite of that are days that are way too hectic: schedules that are too close in proximity to one another; ministry that needs to be done in the same week; trips that happen in succession. This week, I'm looking at only three work days but it actually feels so hectic and loaded. I had just come from a three-day vacation in the southern part of the country, which really got me refreshed and excited about life again; but as I hit the ground running on the first of my three-day-work-week, I was met with a lot of pastoral concerns and membership issues that had me scratching my head, yet still feeling grateful that I had those three vacation days to get recharged. Then, on the same day, Tuesday, I had to bring a new set of believers to the rehabilitation facility where we usually have a Monday a month to serve; I had to
Read more