Missed Instructions

I don’t remember when they handed out the instructions
on how to be a man. I may have been drawing or playing
with toys, but I never learned how to be brave
or competitive or seductive or persuasive or decisive.

I know what those qualities look like but I can never
seem to assimilate them into my persona.
They feel like clothes I will never grow into, a sport
I will never master and a language I will never speak.