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Why the Young Men Are So Ugly by Tony Hoagland   
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Tony Hoagland
Tony Hoagland (1953 - / North Carolina / United States)
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He was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His father was an Army doctor, and Hoagland grew up on various military bases throughout the South. He was .. more >>
5 poems of Tony Hoagland
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Why the Young Men Are So Ugly

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  They have little tractors in their blood
and all day the tractors climb up and down
inside their arms and legs, their
collarbones and heads.

That is why they yell and scream and slam the barbells
down into their clanking slots,
making the metal ring like sledgehammers on iron,
like dungeon prisoners rattling their chains.

That is why they shriek their tires at the stopsign,
why they turn the base up on the stereo
until it shakes the traffic light, until it
dryhumps the eardrum of the crossing guard.

Testosterone is a drug,
and they say No, No, No until
they are overwhelmed and punch
their buddy in the face for joy,

or make a joke about gravy and bottomless holes
to a middle-aged waitress who is gently
setting down the plate in front of them.

If they are grotesque, if
what they say and do is often nothing more
than a kind of psychopathic fart,

it is only because of the tractors,
the tractors in their blood,
revving their engines, chewing up the turf
inside their arteries and veins
It is the testosterone tractor

constantly climbing the mudhill of the world
and dragging the young man behind it
by a chain around his leg.
In the stink and the noise, in the clouds
of filthy exhaust

is where they live. It is the tractors
that make them
what they are. While they make being a man
look like a disease.

Tony Hoagland


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  Matthew De Gasperi  (10/10/2009 9:35:00 PM)

Absolutely brilliant! The little tractor that pollutes, destroys and contaminates the mind and body of young males. Keep up the amazing work.10+
  Melvina Germain  (2/26/2007 8:00:00 AM)

Oh my gosh, no wonder this is in the Top 500--Melvina--

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11/28/2009 5:09:41 PM. #.34# You Are Here: Why the Young Men Are So Ugly by Tony Hoagland

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