Man up / Man Down II. All the Silences

Sad preacher,

cowboy with a frozen look.

I remember a professor

nostalgic for the days of high camp and the closet. I think of my ancestors,

Man Up / Man Down 3 4 Constellation Men’s Ensemble

of the word inheritance.

I think of masculinity

and go back to my Catholic school Latin class.

Virtue. Honor.

I think of video game heroes,

how silent, how impossible they are.

I think of Humphrey Bogart’s stare.

A terrible power,

a terrible responsibility,

but only in the movies do these little moments make sense All the silences.

How it feels to be shaped by hardness,

to have to grow to fit its shape