up

man up
man out
man down down down 
man up 
not up like sky
but up like roof 
like standing on the shingles
like steps i hear: up there pacing
like telling the man on the roof to get down
like he wants to see how up he can get 
he shouts up himself
his legs growing wild like sunflower necks
a skyscraper ups right out of his chest
all those building windows 
there's a man inside 
each of them
all of the men trying to get more up
staring up at the ceiling
as if to bore a passage up up up 
i want to ask him what
he'll do with all the up 
once he gets there
what color his up is
what smell 
what flowers it grows
no one thinks about up like that though 
they just want to claw at it 
like leaves trying to slap their hands
against the sun
i tell them in a gentle voice
that they need to take it off
take all that man off
throw down their man 
man down beneath a rolling pin
down like asphalt 
down like shoe soles  
i take my own man off 
to show them how 
held above my head
it tingles 
to have a breath from gender
for a second
so warm wool gritty 
they go up though 
they go so up up
christmas ornaments 
above the city dangling 
drying sunflower faces 
yellow withering gender
man down down 
their petals 
drip into my open hands
i lay in the yard
i man out 
like grass