PLUMBING THE SOUL

[dukealien]

 Plumbing the Soul
 
Makeup, hair, lipstick
cannot hide
a linebacker body
clear thinkers
understood
long ago
and cared not –  is this inversion necessary?

if-if
joined
by such
in a public toilet
as it is called
in civilized places.  weasel noted - "toilet" ambivalent between singular and plural
 
But let it be
a Men’s, Women’s,
Ladies, Gent’s,
Powder or
Rest Room
and
all changes.
 
The inescapable
shame
that keeps humans
from being
kings of all
is that they
and beasts both
produce waste.  actually, shame is peculiar to humans:  as Mark Twain noted, man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.
 
That shame
unites
men and women
in public toilets,
where they are
close in kinship as
animals.
Higher,
though still animals.
 
 Cloistered apart
in Ladies, Gents,
Men’s, Women’s,
Powder,
Rest
Rooms
to commit their
humiliating deeds,
humanity’s
natural duets
are divided
into
We and
They.  Or, not simply but complexly, tries to accomodate a real difference.
 
But where are
remade folk,
not born
We or They  these two lines are a weasel - don't confuse choice with hermaphrodites
to go?
 
Easy for those
living among
clear thinkers:
public toilets
where each stall
conceals all.  this is the Target remedy - arrived at too late and under severe stress
 
No need to
create a
support community
because it takes only
one to poop,
shake or wipe
a pee
in privacy.
 
What matters is
soul,
not
personal plumbing’s
use or change
or whether it
and owner
agree
on who to be.
 
Once that’s
understood,
live your life,
let others
live theirs.  Including the part of their lives where they decide to reject you?
 

Ignoring other critical comments not because they lack quality, just trying to address the work head-on.

The logical problem here is that the Modified make themselves (in an about turn on Julius Caesar, who was every woman's husband and every man's wife) everyone's They.  It's a choice, and other people's choice to remain in their socially "constructed" We's must be likewise respected.  A bit like public electric-car chargers:  no one's going to emplace them everywhere for a few thousand electrics that can use them.  "I want to be one of you!" can't take precedence over "As a result of your actions, you can't be."

As an argument for a particular way of thinking, this is well done (aside from a few archaisms and assertions contrary to fact - the Romans also segregated their baths by gender... though it's an intriguing question where Greek hetaeras went:  wherever trade took them, probably).   The main criticism (aside from that it *is* polemical, but that's a choice which should be respected) is that it's at least twice as long as necessary to make its point.  In a spirit of Miscellaneous, see how your argument can be strengthened by addressing expected objections and expressing your assertions in fewer but carefully chosen words.