Uniform
Ambition was cinched to our wrists
Responsibility was tightened to our throats
Discipline was buckled at the waist.
Love was tucked in close to the chest.
Anger was draped across our shoulders
Control was zipped into our steps.
Insecurity was wrapped around the feet.
Status was hammered into soles.
Manhood is a tightrope
balancing swagger and surrender.
Locker room bravado and
mirror-shadowed splendor.
Masculinity is a breastplate
earned in boardrooms or squad cars.
burnished by restraint and dented by doubt.
We are defined by either
Diamond cufflinks or steel handcuffs
Never in the calluses of bare hands.
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