Rick Belden asks, what will become of him, now that women look right through him as if he weren’t there at all?
what is to become of me
a man seen as
without value
in the brutal marketplaces
of money and love.
behind the curve
over the hill
sleeping in silence
gray and fading
mister invisible
one more blip
in a sea of blips.
I still pull my weight
I still pay my way
I still pay my taxes
I train my replacement.
I still see the women
but they don’t see me
they look right through me
they walk right through me.
loving and being loved
wanting and being wanted
a rush of desire
a shared breath
a place in
another’s eyes
another’s heart.
once worthy of such things
all long ago and far away
was that really me
or someone else I knew
at what point does a memory become
a fantasy
at what point does a man become
a phantom.
This was previously published on poetry, dreams and the body.
The invisible man by Rick Belden, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Read more on The Disposability of Men on The Good Life.
Image credit: flickrPrince/Flickr
Yeah, what are we if not of some specific use? I think that’s a universal question, but different people, men and women, may define “use” differently. Anyway, I enjoyed.
Thanks for your comment, Adrian.
Thanks, FlyingKal. I appreciate your comment and love the connection you made with the line you quoted from “The River”. That song, and Springsteen’s performance of it, is truly chilling, as real as it gets, and maybe the best thing he’s ever done.
As I think you understand, my poem is about more than just not being seen by women. It is about being marginalized as a man, in both work and love, to the point where you begin to wonder if you even exist anymore, which is why I submitted it for the current series about male disposability.
Yes, I got that it was about overall marginalization, not only about not being seen by women.
I thought it was beautifully written, and the comment was just the first thing to spring to my mind. I’m sorry if it came out kind of one-eyed.
Hope to read more of your work soon.
Thanks, FlyingKal. Your comment was great and I could tell you understood what the poem was saying. My comment was more of a response to the tagline that appears under the photo and before the poem than to anything you wrote.
Simply beautiful.
The final part made me think of
“Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?”
B. Springsteen (The River)