So close, so far

Why is time a woman 
and man a death?

Why do we give one force a gender
and gender the other with force?

Will our willing gender upon them
lessen the bite of their skin upon ours?

Can a persona’s presence
soften the blow for even a moment

of the two things most impossibly
removed from our personhood?

Do the masks we put upon their 
faces hide their horrors from us?

Will these suppositions 
blow the wind of these days

out of the eyes of our
oldest and dearest friends,

our most constant companions, 
our dearest foes?

Will they leave us any longer by virtue 
of what does or does not dangle between their legs?