#AllMen
the time it takes to
get ready the morning, the blank
stares and climb to the back
of the work camp
bus—what length beard and
the price of peaches
all men and diapers
all men and taxes
on the movie industry
on this day he lets his lover
sleep in and checks the charts
for any let up, any hint
as to where his grandfather went
all men disappear into html
and terms of reference replace
what his outline left
a bar stool and a quick look
to access the field—poetry
and the addressee of all men
hail all men hail
amen to the rink and pitch
filled with rules to keep the small packets
of history hitched to our belts
all men carry the load, the tablet
scored with commands, the backpack
to the outback to feed the burn; all men
play the trumpet to ward off her morning light
on the examining table, the patient does not
meet the doctor’s gaze—a hand placed there
and there and he mumbles something about his
bowel movements and the doctor leans over
to take some notes, her awareness of his
discomfort adding to the slant of her script
all men deserve better, all men deserve less
control, all men serve the other men and their
hate is spilled into the reservoir
all men are a hypoxic feedback loop
with shells
pock-marked by action
films and
bleached by the internet
all men
believe the anchormen on the news,
all men
believe in all men
a certain efficacy that all men share
when ordering food at a restaurant
all men know how to limp their wrists
all men own the pronoun’s pronoun
all men reserve the right
tense moments over the wording of the affidavit—
this monument to the precedent, to the legal jurisprudence,
to the gavel’s symbolic weight, to all the men who line the
walls
not all the time was spent in dispute—the rest was
taken to fortify and change the locks