….
Pass away,
Pass away –
on to Oblivion.

So much is for us
And the Great Macho Nation.

~
Two boys, eighteen,
one some months older;
so close were their ages,
they could have been brothers.

But for the customs
of a great nation
(still great – not late,
like those, which came prior)

They would have been brothers –
for that which lies under,
the Western Traditions
of all the Great Nations.

This, we inherit,
from Greek, though unwritten;
where man lands on top –
Male Domination.

For laddies and lasses
there was separation:
A nubile young lass
could reach maturation,
only in marriage,
and male penetration.

For lads, much the same thing:
through war with a wound –
Brave battle bringing
male maturation.

This! we inherit,
through Western Tradition.

“It breaks out the full man,
leaves off the young.”

So said an uncle, once,
from staid convictions.

~
One lad will follow,
the other, abandon:
One went with custom;
the other, with reason.

Each felt the pressures
of intimidation,
where both will be measured
by standard conventions.

But, Woe! to the winners
and losers alike –
The choices they make
stays with them for life.

If either be right,
or both turn out wrong,
how should we judge them –
By short life? Or long?

With thus, we write legends
of great things and strong –
Window fenestrations,
of deeds sung in song.

The myth still lives in us,
it moves us among
the nation’s traditions,
fraught within norms.

Such be the myths
of war-worship nations,
and rituals they make,
to full maturation.

Just one more myth
that fits with tradition:
Who from among us
can pick fact from fiction?

Such be to wars
and great macho nations –
To fabricate truths
by prevarications.

It’s just one more myth
they share all altogether.
Where once there were lads,
there should have been brothers.
~

©2014, Marvin Welborn
3 August 2014. Revised 9 June 2015.