WE BEGIN AND END WITH FAMILY

Picture Courtesy: www.johntracy.me


Make no mistake about it,
We find you ladies pretty complex,
Right from the top of your heads
To the very soles of your feet.
In truth, we love complex,
Plain and simple doesn’t quite cut it for us
Boring, ordinary, mundane, rhymes beautifully with insane
Where’s the thrill in that?
Don’t get me wrong, all that drama’s pretty cute,
We appreciate and welcome that challenge
Knowing me knowing you only presents endless possibilities,
You catch ma drift right?
But overdoing that makes you look small and petty,
Far from sexy and nowhere near pretty
Gets a wee bit crowded and stuffy
Sends our heads into colourful dizzying spins.
Yes, on some days we wish you did come with manuals,
Just so we could flip those pages and do right by you,
After all, whether we like it or not,
When you’re unhappy, we’re beyond unhappy.
The mood swings,
What to do during that time of the month,
The I want to be alone moments,
I don’t feel like talking about it days
And grey areas between your “yeses” and “nos”
Drives us up a cliff sometimes
But we do not seek free passes,
So we can throw our hands up in worthless frustration
Without ensuing ramifications,
All we ask is that you help us understand you,
Please do not assume and expect us to know,
Assumptions are the worst form of complications.


On those grey days when we’re at our wits end
Trying to figure out what to say,
What to do
And what not to do
When you eat little,
Say little
Yet claim to be fine.
You sometimes mistakenly judge by our actions or inactions
Branding them untoward, unnecessary and uncalled for
Calling us bestial
Brutish,
Lacking feeling
And even sometimes uncouth.
But in those moments,
Take a second to look at our faces,
And appreciate the beautiful confusion
Eyes about dripping like taps
Absent smiles,
Furrowed brows and uni-brows.
For you tend to misread our gestures,
Facial expressions
Slowly reddening faces
And quick short breaths
To be the onset of anger and irritation
But in those moments, we’re miles away from anger
And no closer to irritation either,
If only there were a way we could transmit to you
Our feeling of helplessness,
Moments when we feel powerless,
Then you could probably lend us a hand
And better understand
For we are far from brutish and uncouth.


Our broad chests,
Strong arms,
Gruff voices,
Throats sporting well defined Adam’s apples
Or the ones that blend in,
The stubble on our chins,
Callused hands,
The six packs,
The missing packs,
Way down to the one pack,
The football craze,
Others still trying to get in football genes,
Our love for video games
And the many other things that we do….
Those are just a few of the things that make us men,
You tend to call some of them childish,
Immature
Juvenile and adolescent,
But we do not pick on you when you paint your nails,
Fix eyelashes
Wear hair extensions, weaves,
Stand on heels the taller than the Eifel tower,
Match colours from earrings right down to your belts and footwear,
We do not think you have an inferiority complex
Whenever you do these things,
For we feel doing those very things make you feel special, feminine,
Doing those things make you tick as women.
Do allow us tick as men too,
So please,
Next Friday, when friends come over and we play video games,
Make a mess in the living area,
Engage in shouting matches
Drink barrels of alcohol
And make so much noise,
View those moments as our toenail painting,
Eyelash fixing,
Weave wearing,
Lip colouring sessions.
We are men,
Those are some of the things that we do,
Taking those away from us would makes us feel less manly
Disconsolate and unhappy.


We’ve got no problems with you having male friends,
It is those who have that uncomfortably irritating habit
Of inviting you over for dinner,
Movies and etcetera etcetera.
Our objections to these have absolutely nothing to do with trust,
It is not a guy thing, it’s everyone’s thing.
Ladies, I doubt you’d be over the moon when
Another lady finds your man good company
And keeps inviting him to dinner and what nots.
Whenever issues like this crop up, do not fly off the handle,
You just might fall and break your hip,
Then we’d have to bear the brunt of complications,
Instead pause, breathe for a second or two and walk in our shoes,
After a few uncomfortable steps in our rugged boots
You will gain much needed perspective,
It is only then can you begin to understand where we’re coming from.


View a relationship as a commercial airliner,
There are always two pilots onboard,
Captain and co-pilot,
Being a co-pilot does not make you a bad pilot,
It makes you the best wingman ever.
Relationships are not struggles for independence,
If independence is what you seek,
You’re better off remaining single
Because your decisions and choices affect the other person too.
You can earn more than your man,
The success of a woman is no crime, it is very admirable
But that notwithstanding, you are a co-pilot,
You and the captain are a team,
Not master and servant
Or teacher and student.
We wear the pants, that is the role we play,
Please, No mutinies
No coup d’etats
No uprisings and gunfights,
Do not usurp us, let us be,
Those are our pants,
Please let us wear the pants,
Leave us be the men of the house.
We do not have issue with you wearing jeans trousers
And suits with pants,
We appreciate that,
Brings out your figure, does justice to your figure.


Every man wants a wingman he can depend on,
Share thoughts with on the future,
Not one who nods to everything
And moves about like a wound up robot,
After all, we’re not all knowing,
We can be opinionated sometimes but we’re nowhere
Near being beyond reason.
Take your time, observe us and you’ll find out soon
Enough that answers to all your queries stand right before you,
Just be a tad diplomatic about it.


We need you to help us make homes out of houses,
Start families and oversee the lactating, post-lactating
And pubescent phases of the next generation,
There’s no greater joy than in growing old and grey with a woman,
Sitting back and watching the little boys and girls of yesterday,
Mount their wings and begin to take flight
Becoming the men and women of tomorrow.
Moments like those are testament to the fact that
Families are the building blocks of the future,
In the end, we will not be remembered by the wealth we acquired
But rather the little ones we brought forth
Nurtured, took under our wings
Watching them walk in our very own footsteps.
Their failures will be our failures
And likewise their successes,
When it’s all said and done,
We all start and end with family,
Let’s smoothen out each other’s rough edges
There are no perfect fits,
No tailor-made suits,
We keep working at it till it fits,
That is what life is all about.
Let’s grow old and grey with that special someone
While waving goodbye to a world aging with time,
Because at some point in time,
We’ll all become memories with tombstones marking the
Very spots where we would all be calling home for a while,
It is only family who'll truly remember us then,
For we'll always remain more than mere memories and
names carved on tombstones,
To them, we'll forever remain family.