CW: Men, patriarchy, toxic masculinity

“Visual Creatures”

Men are often told
They are worth exactly what they are
A cunning phrase of devastation
“We’re only visual creatures!”
An insidious intonation, full of praise

Terminating thoughts in every age
Watching global destruction unfold
Dismissing rage, day by day
Gazing eyes on feminine fixtures
“We’re just a bunch of silly guys.
We’re only visual creatures!”

Praying on outdated images
Repeated, sullen features
Unproven vestiges, reminders of the past
Patriarchal death throe, dying crass
Terminated mind, as a child
Attached at birth, a path assigned
“Men never change, they’re visual creatures”

“Men are visual creatures”
Eye sight forged by battered mothers
She offers a solution, twice over
Strike once,
Bleed their fears
Strike twice,
Destroy their dreams
“Men are visual creatures”
They lurk for gossamer souls
Their mothers turn blind eyes
The creatures search for victims
And feast on cultural homicide

Destruction splatters violence below the sea
Across the deserts and their arid beauty
Through luscious jungles and the sticky air
It draws earthen power by its own means
Then, imperial ambition shows its ugly face
“We’re visual creatures, that's not the case”
Now it's all taken

See what you want and take what you see
You’re a visual creature
That’s what you have to be
Look at sex, no feelings
Look at violence, heart beating
Hear a war drum, duty calling
Revelry at all cost, down that fucking tincture
And try to forget
That you’re a pitiful “visual creature”

But redemption is in sight, creature
Uplift all thoughts in the face of fear
Rebuild the lives passing through the ashes
Put up your rage for those who can’t
Then shed your own poisoned eyes,
And amplify feminine reprise
Morph your identity inside and out
Feel course corrected and hug your core
Protect people and love them even more

Look those creatures in the eyes
Stall their destruction
Make them feel their disbelief
Make them weep with fervor
You’re more than a creature and you can see it all
Injustice will never seep in, even if your
Newfound flesh is beaten silly against the wall
Never let them find your color

Remember,

You were never just a creature
You're more than just a man
You're more than just a woman
More than the prismatic spectrum in our hearts

And one day,
Evil visual creatures will never see you again