Day 16 – How Some Men Cry
Toxic masculinity is a sad indictment on us all. This poem reflects a breakdown in relationship between Fathers and their sons. All relationships suffer when we are unable to be kind to ourselves as men, and to those we love.
Some men cry in strange ways.
The young man spoke of a distant father.
Home every night, locked in his own head,
unable to be a part of a whole
or share the joys or pains of life
of another.
Even his own son.
And then there’s Ubuntu.
One African word as life can be.
One word that books have tried to express.
A Golden Rule.
Bringing cultures, families together.
One with kindness.
Treating others as you would treat yourself.
Perhaps, a father’s unseen tears,
inside the prison of his mind
show the damaged self he can’t accept.
Unable to hear his own story and empathise.
Unable to see his dreams in the story of his son.
To be to him what he needed someone to be for him.
Yet love.
We fail.
We fall short.
We aren’t who we wanted to be.
But in our brokenness
we are still and as we try to live love,
Ubuntu can change us.
A seed needing tears of kindness can grow
into something beautiful.
Like a sweet smelling rose,
its imperfect tree,
twisted gnarled branches,
harshly pruned,
yet germinating life.
A chance to live and grow.
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