How to make a boy into a man

His head peeks out the burrow, the safe haven.

He has decided himself brave enough to face

the harsh elements alone.

The motherly womb has no more use

crooning over the sensitive boy,

who only knows sleep and childlike dreams.

It is past time for the boy to learn

that the ragged earth is not as it seems.

This is for his own good:

Exposing him to the cold, bony hold of the world.

For miles, he needs to walk

his too-soft feet on the jagged stones.

He needs to be calloused and brutalized,

left to endure his struggle alone.

​

Up above, sulphurous clouds gather.

They bring the promise of acid rain over the heat-lashed lands.

Soon this naive flower of a boy will be watered

by the relentless needle stings of reality.

All his brimming petals of innocence will be shed.

In a landscape of skeletal trees, this lone flower

will learn to harden itself over the years

like a gnarled knuckle.

​

Once another bony outgrowth

sprouts from the earth,

the world is pleased with the results:

this brutal deformity, an unnatural husk

devoid of any feeling or personality.

They call this tragedy

a real man, stiff with duty,

a success story.

​

The world continues on in its ways,

convinced that this archaic method

is the only way to make future

flowering boys like him grow.

​

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