Men, fear and women

[David Amakye]

Men, fear and women
- Our ancestors still sleep-talk.
- For they couldn't have conversations in toil.
- Though speech isn't an average human ability,
- yet not all dare to let words lose.
- For struggle has a way of stifling both life and speech.
- Tongues can be tamed.
- A language can be disgraced and a right to speak be made shy.

Men can fear.
- But at infancy, I was told, a man is supposed to hold his chest out even when a gun is fired.
- For only by daring such, shall he be called brave.
- Only then will he be more a hero than Clark Kent.
- And this was before lawful young people died by bullets.
- Even way before I saw bullets could easily pierce black bodies like in Chicago.
- Before men were told to be brave, other men knew black bodies were targeted.
- That to live daily was to be afraid, when nothing kills faster than fear.
- And fact is, you can tell what a man fears from his speech or silence.
- Some say you only have to hold a piece to his head.
- Or better try to remove his loves,challenge his beliefs.
- Or tell him the truth about his flaws.
- Dig up his skeletons, call out his ghosts!
- Tell him about a time where he won't breathe, tell him he is not immortal,
- and watch him crumble into nothing.
- For fear exposes the walls men hide behind.

Women fear
- It questions nature and state,
- to reveal a personality frail and feeble as a child’s stance.
- You can ask a woman.
- Ask a woman who looks in a mirror and forgets what she looks like.
- She walks unsure.
- She twists her heels and gulps at every stare.
- Every stare feels like a soul-search with no warrant.
- She also is a target.
- And where she sees periodic red, marks the spot
- Women too, can fear.
- Maybe more than men.