to my future son

a tight poem from poet & good friend Kenji Liu on masculinity. Be sure to peep the rest of his insightful gems at parami10. He and some friends are doing a Poem A Day exercise for April, some really good stuff is comin up. Also look out for his chapbook "You Left Without Your Shoes" coming out on Finishing Line Press. Respect!


to my future son

inside concrete, men spin and flex
like WWF wrestlers, hollow and fearsome

and always performing. son, you do not have
to empty yourself like them, fists squeezed

so tightly your tenderness becomes
a sickness, constricted and hard

in your liver. this is the price
of manhood, to be a stone quivering

inside an egg. you will be told
to choose from a stir fried lineup

of kung fu gangsters, dumb-asses and
anti-sexy uncle tongs. these are men

made from the politics of other men
who only worship themselves.

if you choose manhood, many
will reward you, but really, who wants

to be a plastic action figure, muscular
yet with only one move: a head slam?



-Reposted by permission of the author Kenji Liu. This poem is protected under the “Attribution Non-Commercial No Derrivatives” license, view at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/