The Softness of Men

1:

For a long time we didn’t know

any men who cried

our fathers couldn’t cry

and our brothers had all stopped

crying abruptly one day

it was only ShahRukh whose big eyes

would brim and swim with unshed tears

and each time he wept

all the girls and women

would love him, like we knew him.

2:

The softness of most men is only visible

in the safe company of some women.

3:

In a photo essay by a British photographer, Indian men hold hands and look at the sea and wander around the city, arms linked, hands clasped, in one photograph a man’s hand gently holds another’s little finger that’s nearly slipping out of his grasp, these men aren’t lovers, they’re just friends and this man who photographed them had never seen anything like this before.

4:

When he was little my brother sounded just like my mother and each time he answered the phone, the person on the other end would say, “Hello Lakshmi.” And we all found it so funny, we laughed at him so much that he began to dislike answering the phone until his voice broke.

And I suppose that’s how it starts this slow unravelling of softness when femininity is associated with shame.

5:

Soft men are strong.