The Vagaries of Hemingway

If Belano and Larrson

wrote of the violence

inflicted by men

upon women,

then on the surface

it would be absurd

to conjure Hemingway

who was and has become

a problematic

embodiment 

of the masculine

into this conversation,

and yet if you lift the veil,

was not Hemingway

as concerned

as Belano or Larrson

in the mysterious distance

between a man and a woman?

These are writers 

vital

to our understanding

of the world.

They explore
in their mysterious ways

what it means to be a man

and what it means to be

a woman

and how these worlds

collapse amongst each other

and sometimes

come together

and not always

in tragedy.

That all three died

without a clear understanding

of their true place in the world

would be the tragedy,

and yet in their wake

we are more able to celebrate

the best we have to offer
for all our sorry experiences.