The Man

So I am sitting here thinking
What really makes a man
Is it staunch bravery?
Is it ones hard working nature?
Is it the ability to provide?

But then I also have to ask myself:
Am I trying to be the man
I think the world deserves
Or the type of man I think I should be?

Am I the type of son
that can carry a legacy?
The type of son
that my parents can be proud of?
Am I the type of son
who will one day be a man
in his own family?

Then again

who are the men that are around me?
Which men do I find in my community?

So now I can't help but ask myself

With every cut a man inflicts in war
Does he not cut himself also?
And if I am expected to do the same
Then am I not consciously
putting myself in pain?

So essentially I cannot grow to become
the man that society tells me to be
At the end of the day
I have to grow into my own being
And just be myself despite the titles
That try to determine my destiny

So if I am to become a man
I will be a man by my own ethics
Because what good is it
To die 'a man'
If I have never lived as a person
Who knows him seriously