Poetry
The Ballad of the Girly Man
For Felix
The truth is hidden in a veil of tears
The scabs of the mourners grow thick with fear
A democracy once proposed
Is slimmed and grimed again
By men with brute design
Who prefer hate to rime
Complexity’s a four-letter word
For those who count by nots and haves
Who revile the facts of Darwin
To worship the truth according to Halliburton
The truth is hidden in a veil of tears
The scabs of the mourners grow thick with fear
Thugs from hell have taken freedom’s store
The rich get richer, the poor die quicker
& the only god that sanctions that
Is no god at all but rhetorical crap
So be a girly man
& take a gurly stand
Sing a gurly song
& dance with a girly sarong
Poetry will never win the war on terror
But neither will error abetted by error
We girly men are not afraid
Of uncertainly or reason or interdependence
We think before we fight, then think some more
Proclaim our faith in listening, in art, in compromise
So be a girly man
& sing this gurly song
Sissies & proud
That we would never lie our way to war
The girly men killed christ
So the platinum DVD says
The Jews & blacks & gays
Are still standing in the way
We’re sorry we killed your god
A long, long time ago
But each dead solider in Iraq
Kills the god inside, the god that’s still not dead.
The truth is hidden in a veil of tears
The scabs of the mourners grow thick with fear
So be a girly man
& sing a gurly song
Take a gurly stand
& dance with a girly sarong
Thugs from hell have taken freedom’s store
The rich get richer, the poor die quicker
& the only god that sanctions that
Is no god at all but rhetorical crap
So be a girly man
& sing this gurly song
Sissies & proud
That we would never lie our way to war
The scabs of the mourners grow thick with fear
The truth is hidden in a veil of tears
Contributor
Charles BernsteinCharles Bernstein’s most recent book is Near/Miss, from the University of Chicago Press.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Photostats
By Lee Ann NormanNOV 2020 | Art Books
Made as the AIDS crisis in the United States was at its peak, the photostats—a series of fixed works with white serif text on black fields that are framed behind glass—reflect the contradictions inherent within human beings; a timeless social commentary on the difficult and ongoing work that lies ahead to create a more just world.

Nele Wynants’s When Fact Is Fiction: Documentary Art in the Post-Truth Era
By Tiernan MorganOCT 2020 | Art Books
The anthologys thirteen contributors, among them artists, photographers, broadcasters, and filmmakers, analyze projects that exemplify the discursive and rhetorical value of blurring the distinction between fiction and reality. But, despite its title, the contemporary context of online culture, populism, and fake news are almost entirely absent from its pages.
White Fear and Safety in the Struggle for Housing Justice
By Jerald IsseksNOV 2020 | Field Notes
Several years ago I was walking by myself on Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn, New York. At this point downtown Brooklyn was not the chaotic cloud of cranes, dust, and empty skyscraping glass that it is today. Up ahead, I saw a man sitting atop the metal armrest of a bench, one foot planted on the benchs seat, the other on the concrete. As I approached, I could see that he was staring directly at me and was tapping repeatedly at his wrist, which he had held out for me to see. The thing I remember most distinctly about this encounter was that I was scared.
Partial Reveals & Inclusive Revelations in the Post-Truth Simulacracy: The Poetics
By Chris CampanioniJUL-AUG 2020 | Books
The Poetics is interested in exactly this conjunction, and Ives questions both the narrative of history and the history of narrative as a form in elaborate, strident observations that are illuminating and speculative.