What is surprising is its fragility,
the cold hard but oh so thin veneer
that is willingly exposed, but always
at a nominal distance so that its
shallowness can hide behind the illusion.
Even when among its peers, it wants
to inflate for the bigger it appears
the less frail it seems to those
casting the passing glance at it.
You would not imagine this would
be the world it inhabits, and it is
not the world to which it would
ever admit to being a part, but
that is the thing with the male ego,
it is never fully at home, not even
in the locker room where its exploits
can live their hyperbolic lives again.