355 and 356
There are a great and many instincts, ill,
that have been used by men of every age,
and many such that only pleasures fill
and some that satisfy unruly rage.
And this indeed has led to many faults,
assumptions based on truth, and based on fear.
“Boys will be boys”, ‘tis said, and reason halts,
replaced by crude presumption: clean and clear.
Boys WILL be boys, emboldened by fay joy,
and do whatever friendship and love do.
I never knew, and understood, a boy
who loved, and I not love his instinct, too.
Boys will be boys, they’ll wrestle and they’ll weep,
and dream of heroism in their sleep.
~~~
The waves and sea, by day the thoroughfare,
are not, by night, so busy. They are soft--
unless the rain or storm so churn the air.
The man-thrushed sea, by night, the man has doffed.
But minds are not so lucky as the sea.
By day engaged with man, by night new-vexed.
When rest would promise hours busy-free,
the thoughts that man has made have, night, annexed.
Duvets and pillows know more troubles, yea,
than any counselor or therapist.
If such could speak, indeed, what might they say?
Who better for one’s own anthologist?
Colonial man has not left our world
until he’s not, in our bed, also curled.