deepundergroundpoetry.com
A Victim
He’d rather not be doing it,
he’d rather be alone.
But men are only real
when they’re as hard as stone.
he’d rather be alone.
But men are only real
when they’re as hard as stone.
Published 17th Apr 2022
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17th Apr 2022 12:19pm
17th Apr 2022 2:35pm
17th Apr 2022 2:36pm
This vignette is full of pending turmoil. The ground roars with the melancholy that sits in it.
I've found a direct link in the past with Masculinity and the victim feeling.
The pen is cold as ice in this. It's minimal art on the page.
I was wondering how you felt about one extra word in L2 between "rather" and "alone"
"be left" came to mind as did "stay" but I did think "cry" would smash the emotions.
Just a thought.
Thanks for sharing this one Jack. It hit the heart hard.
Blue Skies at you
Al
I've found a direct link in the past with Masculinity and the victim feeling.
The pen is cold as ice in this. It's minimal art on the page.
I was wondering how you felt about one extra word in L2 between "rather" and "alone"
"be left" came to mind as did "stay" but I did think "cry" would smash the emotions.
Just a thought.
Thanks for sharing this one Jack. It hit the heart hard.
Blue Skies at you
Al
17th Apr 2022 7:23pm
Thank you for pointing that out, Al. That’s actually a grammatical mistake on my part and it should read “be” alone. I’ll edit that now.
I really liked your interpretation. Part of the impetus for this poem was something I read about a man who’d felt pressured into sex by a woman, and it occurred to me that societies don’t often formulate assault or misconduct or whatever you want to call it that way, as we tend to assume that men can’t be victims because they somehow ALWAYS want sex.
But the logic is surely just as poisonous as when we apply it to women: he MUST have wanted it, or else he wouldn’t have been able to “perform”.
I really liked your interpretation. Part of the impetus for this poem was something I read about a man who’d felt pressured into sex by a woman, and it occurred to me that societies don’t often formulate assault or misconduct or whatever you want to call it that way, as we tend to assume that men can’t be victims because they somehow ALWAYS want sex.
But the logic is surely just as poisonous as when we apply it to women: he MUST have wanted it, or else he wouldn’t have been able to “perform”.
