Relic

 

“No Man’s Land” by Bernard Dumaine

 

 

 

bourbon with bubble baths
meat loaf with manicures
beards with bald heads
shave their chest hair
and football is now but a
game played in fantasy
no men these days would
give up their seat or would
dare open doors for a lady
honor and pride are
no longer sufficient
rewards for one’s effort

it seems I have outlived
the role that my father
with diligence trained me
to play in fulfillment of
ancestral contracts
the blood oaths between
men whose culture
required a masculine dignity
shaped by old centuries
men who loved women
enough to behave at all
times as true gentlemen

it seems I have outlived
my place in this world
disagreement transcends
intellectual honesty
ethical principles fail
to obtain due respect
I am relic among the
advance of rogue values
here twisting and turning
within what’s become
my own living grave
unburied unmourned

 

 

From my book Human Waters