Real Mens Emotions

(Picture not my work: From Internet)

Know when to leave your emotions at your feet

Tough coyotes like to gnaw on bleeding meat

You must learn what it takes to be a real man

When to hold it in, keep your face expressionless, cooler than

A driver flying 220 in control round the track side

Or a cowboy on a bull’s back going for the 8 sec ride

But when you’re strumming your guitar with truth veins

When you’re alone in the weather weeping with the rains

When you’re dancing to the strains of a true rock song

Or walking away from a place you want, but don’t belong

Then you can let it grow, loose the reins let, it flow

Let it rage and storm and thunder, let it blow

Sometimes the only way to let it out, let it loose

Is to tip the bottle up, drink the rum, gulp the goose

Maybe throw in a pill or two or ten or four

Maybe you need even more

Then you can always place the blame

On the substance and not your name

Others learn the planes of your impassive face

Especially family members you can’t displace

They poke and prod all eager for reaction

But you know how to repay them with inaction

For you are a manly man not given to emotion

That’s for girls and children and dogs with devotion

There are a few places you are allowed to howl

When you lose the fight and throw in the towel

When skin is a burned, bubbling cauldron

From the mine burst inside your war squadron

And sometimes with a woman when you come

But be careful who you trust, she’ll let you down

Boys under the age of five show more passion

Than little girls do. When does the caution

From society begin to kill their expression?

How do those small boys get the message?

That real men must be hard and brave and stoic

That only harnessed rage becomes heroic

Legends

(All photos not my work--from the internet)

James was a rebel; a pack of cigarettes in his sleeve

He left his pain on the screen; his body on the street

Jimi, River, Cory and Amy all left on a high

While Otis, Richie and Buddy fell out of the sky

Flaring flames for a moment burst bright

Quickly extinguished, futures lost in the night

 Leaving behind a picture, a word or a song

They died too soon, but their legends live on

Were Robbie’s Last Waltz words a future foretold?

Life on the road left poor Richard hanging cold

Years later Kurt held a shotgun to his head

So much angst and talent buried and dead

Did their souls know that they would leave early?

Their brilliance flashed fast, high and clearly

Before thirty they were revered and celebrated

More than other long lives accomplished or created

Janis wailed Bobby Magee was no longer there

But she left a piece of her heart and her voice in the air

Jim Morrison opened and closed dark doors

Lying in Paris forever now, where grief visits and pours

Flaring flames for a moment burst bright

Quickly extinguished, futures lost in the night

 Leaving behind a picture, a word or a song

They died too soon, yet their legends live on

Do you remember that Brian Jones formed the Stones?

Mick and Keith keep them rolling over his bones

Sam Cooke, Tupac and Marvin Gaye were all shot

They are remembered, but their killers are not

There are candle flames for Marilyn and Diane

Prescriptions for Heath didn’t go as planned

Zyzz led the bodybuilding aesthetic generation

His heart may have stopped, but not his motivation

Flaring flames for a moment burst bright

Quickly extinguished, futures lost in the night

 Leaving behind a picture, a word or a song

They died too soon, yet their legends live on