Poem For Men Poem by Frank Bana

Men were sent to war
Beasts corralled by shame
Crouched deep in the trenches
Knelt in blood and bare
Of reasoning and name
Men saw prison slavery
Years of death without reprieve
Stowed away by press gangs
Without a tailwind or a breeze
Men were born in labour
Lashed and fastened to the plough
Scratching their small acre
To put a harvest into store

Men lived immune but not before
Many were embraced by AIDS
Men were tortured on the rack
Torn and hung up by the neck
Blackened in the press and grave
For one idea they had to say
Strangled by conformity
By high priests of the day
Men were lately called upon
To slay the greatest mastodon
To break their bones on the castle wall
To make the sacred pilgrimage
To take the mountain and the fall

Men were unmanned
For remembering they were boys
Broken if they dared
To learn to write beatitudes
Or speak lightly as a girl
Men were exiled in transportation
For stealing a crust of bread
For stealing a deadly kiss
Daring to think of love and dreams
Daring to read a poem like this
And still they are
You look around and look at them
Men are still afraid
Men made to be human
Men made to be brave