Friday, March 29, 2019

day SEVEN HUNDRED and NINETY NINE



The Men are Surprised

 “There are no words in the English language/I could scream to drown you out” – Phoebe Bridgers

The men are surprised
and sad
they are unsure what to do
with the information
they are reading

how someone they love
could do so bad,
how someone whose art they appreciate
could sink his teeth
into the women who made the mistake of
being near him.

How he could dangle the promise of fame
and music making before young girls
full of talent
and then pull it away
and break them
and leave them
broken.

Leave them so they never want to make art again.

The good men are surprised
and angry
so very angry for being fooled.
They are also angry because they don’t know what to do now.
Will they still be good men
if they listen to the music of a bad man?
What does it say about them?

But the women nod.
We know better than to trust
that the men who make art
that sings the songs that live in our hearts.

We know better.
The good men are surprised
and they want to know
how
How do the women know not to trust?
How do they know that the beloved artists is bad?
What did he do or say to make it so clear?

And the women smile and
think about intuition
the way we have learned
like wolves
when to run
and the women
say
because the men that make art
that live in our hearts
are also
and always
still

men.

--Ally Malinenko




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