April 18, 2016

#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

all men spill open like a cracked egg