A Poem by Ed Madden

Author: Poetry Editor

January 28, 2015

This week, a poem by Ed Madden.

 

SOMETIMES IT’S ALL I THINK ABOUT, TOO

 

Everyone is one or the other:
hand-held or old school.

My grandma’s hygiene book says
the nerves are the body’s telegraph,

soft tissue, hard-wired.
Out front, the mockingbird sings all night,

won’t stop—unmated, male, they do that,
download every song they’ve ever heard.

The unattached male is
society’s most serious problem.

Every time I masturbate
I am rethinking hegemonic masculinity.

The dog-day cicadas are dialing up—
horny little modems buzzing in the oaks.

——

ED MADDEN is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina and director of the Women’s & Gender Studies Program. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Nest (Salmon, 2014). A fourth, Ark, will be published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2016.