sharp tongues
and fuzzy eyebrows
a dead fish mouth with a hook to the side,
a lazy, lazy eye
you haven’t listened the entire time
as she is breathy with stories and the life of a young woman
but you pounce (i saw you crouch)
at the adverse ideas, that we live in a space and time
much newer than yours

that my boss could be a woman before he was a man
that my friends might look and sound and feel different than you

but who are you, stuck in your room, glued to the tube?
to spit such fire, to set ablaze a hope i’d raised
and coddled since it was a sprout
who are you to raid this land, and damage it with doubt?
a man, a-fraid
of losing what he’s won

dreaming of those
olden days
of fighting, just for
fun