WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN

Maneuver, Manage, Manipulate

You’re not the daring disciple

But walk on a frightened river fervidly

She doesn’t care if it’s a shuffle

All she needs is a long carol at winter yuletide

Manners, Manacles, Man-up

Tray your murky moods on

your head alone, on the aisle

sorry, the furrow in your heart is a minus

Take the amber for yourself, yes!

Manure, Mandate, Mandela

Grow savannah into the moist desert soils

crawling into fear to hide your happiness

The truth is never a drama; the maestro may not survive

but not until you’ve created the utopia

Do you know at all

what it means to be a man?

ask those burning feet that have trekked the boundaries of Sahara

when the sun decides to fry a cake

out of this moist earth.