A Poem I'm Working On...

Super Saturated

Against a million rays of sun
shooting danger toward us
so that they seem as one ray.
Even on cloudy days when the sun
is still there, but less so,
on days when the snow falls
quietly and indirectly.
When the fog won’t dissipate
and our world
is smaller and more obvious;
and yes, on rainy days,
men are crying.

Men are crying;
men are crying everywhere;
men are crying all the time;
men are crying at the movies and in the movies;
men are crying because their wives were gone and have come home;
men are crying because their team won;
Men are crying during weddings to other men – so then two
men are crying which makes men cry.
Men are crying because of the layoffs;
men are crying because they had to fire someone, a friend perhaps, and
men are crying because they are hungry;
men are crying because they want;
men are crying because they fell into a 12- foot hole at work and now they are injured;
men are crying on the news because they don’t have health insurance;
men are crying because they don’t know what they’re going to do.

Men are crying because
their child
went to school
but did not
return;

their child
did not
return.

Men are crying because their child did not
return.

Men are crying because they love Allah;
men are crying because the soldier, standing next to them a moment ago, is gone;
men are crying because of the shrapnel and because of the lies;
men are crying because their team is losing;
men are crying because their team lost;
men are crying because men are lost. Men are homesick. Yes,
men are crying because men are homesick.
Men are crying because they love the flag too much and because their love is scary to them;
men are crying because they forgot that flags, in the hearts and hands of men, can be scary;
men are crying because they are scared;
men are crying because they persevere;
men are crying because they perpetuate;
men are crying because they procreate and
Men are crying for procreation. No,
men are crying for sex;
men are crying for sex and before sex and during sex and after sex. Men are the crying sex.
Men are crying for the same reason everyone cries – men are crying because
men are so full up, men are so super-saturated, that men spill forth like the tide (which is a measurement of time:
men are crying time).
Men are crying up parts of themselves;
men are crying to explain the ocean;
men are crying while the ice melts;
men are crying, and their tears evaporate at the pace of memory fading, which is to say:
men are crying and their tears will never go away. Their tears will never stop.