Allow me to implicate myself
by way of introduction
Or perhaps offer this effigy
en route to getting warmed up
This is no scraping of a violin bow,
nor some preemptive plea bargain
This is the executive summary
of a report from the front
An expert guided tour
of the way we live now
Wherein “we” is limited to “he”
and in which:
The editing of innuendo feels endless,
and it’s not just a matter of “delete”
It’s rubbing the word “***” off a blackboard,
over and over again
Auto-correcting with the accuracy
a computer could never achieve
To walk in a way that suggests
you’ve got deflector shields engaged
Cultivating the cordiality of a handshake
without the slightest sign of a squeeze
Protecting yourself from listening,
much less laughing, at jokes
Maneuvering to obscure the entitlement
that underarm-stains your image
Averting your eyes from necklines and hemlines,
no matter how deep or short
So role-play all the new rules,
rather than resembling a mere exception;
Preemptively (but sincerely!) apologize
(while acknowledging your privilege)
Evolve into an astronomer of bias,
mapping despicable constellations
Be the first to storm out of panels
without any women on the stage
Paint over those posters of Picassos;
erase all those Woody Allen movies
Ponder your great power,
your even greater responsibilities
With the fearlessness of Spider-Man
dangling head-first, prepared to fall
Stay poised within the centre
on a teeter-totter of ugly extremes
Accept like a kid after Christmas
you want for nothing, having gotten it all
**** it up (rather than “man up”) --
or just “be a man,” whatever that means
