The aspiration of an upper middle-class male
Merely to remain upper middle-class
Like a rosicrucian mystery
Understood it seemed by everybody but himself
The sunrise exercise the fashion imperatives
Knowledge captured in the main
But deficient at the critical periphery
Or so he felt and was aware fitfully and in doses
Epistemic homeopathy
The great barrier being the masculine code of silence
The rule that all is competence all is consensus
What everybody knows everybody can
As to brand quantity currency use and value
Consumer products mostly
And play it off above all
Play it off
Casual
Everything falls into place
Betray to no person the roiling anxiety
Occasioned by career education and above all sexual behavior
He accepted the mandates
But his execution of them lacked authority
Or so he felt
Sure he was straight
And he knew that he was required
To woo and win a woman
At least one although maybe more than one
And he feared
That all around him knew
Or any of them or at least one of them
Had observed the slippage of his faith
In the preeminent doctrine
That you can get anything if you want it badly enough
And if you don’t get what you want
You didn’t want it badly enough
And he feared
That he did not want anything that badly