AxisofLogic/Poetry

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A Man's Place, Father's Day, June 15, 2003
By Les Blough





A Man's Place

This is a man's place.
Sheets of his presence
Wafted through these rooms,
Seen by his hands,
Heard by his lips,
Touched by his words.
His life, a male life,
Painted these walls,
Breathed this air and
Spoke a young man's heart.
The nintendo, the rap,
The dirty jokes, the NBA,
The ravioli made in haste,
The dirty sneakers,
And sweaty socks,
Lenny Kravitz, Pink Floyd,
U2 and Tracy Chapman;
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Jordan, Magic, McKale and Spike
Posters and cars and hoop.
The ziti and frozen lasagna,
All awash in tears of confusion,
But tears of a man.
We cried silently together
Because we didn't know how
To say I love you.

And we weren't allowed to touch
Because of our maleness.
But we loved each other,
Raw and awkward,
Banging into each other skins,
Covering seas of tenderness.
And when we got desperate
To love and show our love,
A root of tenderness sprang
Up into headlocks and tackles
That broke lamps.

And one would conquer
And one would submit
And we would linger
In the other's death-grip,
Begging for mercy,
Asking for love.
But never speaking the word
And never kissing the kiss,
Because we were men.

And these walls are painted
With his maleness.
And this air is charged with his humor.
These rooms are filled with his love
And these floors are covered with his death.
These windows reflect his eyes
His eyes search the corners of the living room
For the lost frightened rainbow in my heart
He is here! He is here.
More pure, more strong,
Unbounded powerful blasting through my heart;
Wafting through my brain,
Conquering my body,
Wrestling my spirit to the floor,
Holding me saying, Give up?
And I wonder where he is.
Oh yes my son, I give up!
I give up, I give up, I give up.

Take me into your clouds,
Carry me into the mother
And let us curl into
One another's male love.
And wail our way into the losses
That open the door to eternity.
~ Les Blough, June, 1992