A REMINDER: Why We Need to Resist
The family patriarch was a big man
a big crude red-faced rooster of a man
with cock’s comb of jet that wilted
in the golden glow of an honest sun
He wrapped fear around himself in the way
of a frail old woman with her shawl
His boom and blather made the girl shiver
like the surface of a pond brushed by a dark wind
In a greedy closet big enough to live in he
gathered his indulgences and ego props
He grew fat and aggressive on flesh foods and alcohol
He drove a big car and parking it
made sure to intrude on his neighbor’s grace
He thought himself a “man’s man” and
kept the women in their places, as defined by him
He whipped the elder son into nervous abandon,
trying to craft him into a clone and a validation
To keep the upper hand, he pitted his boys against each other,
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