“The boys on the bus,” poem, Kristen Rapp.

The boys on the bus

who dared me to strip in the backseat

are all men now. But boys will be boys

and men will be men.

Those boys who learn of their power

in social studies and porn, who watch women

gutted on the evening news

--she must have asked for it--

become men who gut us with callused fingers,

get elected president, legislate

bodies they’ve never bled in.

Our son hasn’t learned any of this yet. He cries

with eyes still soft and melts his soothed,

open weight onto our chests, offering hugs

and stuffed animals to lift us from the grief

of watching a country burn.

Today, I wonder how many crying boys

it will take, how many crying boys

safe to be crying men, to drown this fire.

Kristen Rapp is a poet and sociologist. She is an associate professor of Sociology and Public Health at Roanoke College, where she studies and teaches on the topic of social inequalities in health. Her recent research examines the relationship between U.S. state policy contexts and disparities in healthcare access by gender and race. Her poetry explores themes of motherhood, queer identity, and politics. Kristen lives in Roanoke, Virginia with her wife and son.