Microplastics are to men what Norway is to whales
#MeToo movement has been to men what ICC has been to Benjamin Netanyahu
Vatican has been to men what Vatican has been to priests
Islam has been to men what oil fields have been to comedy
Pop culture has been to men what Sear’s Catalog has been to pop culture
Justice has been to men what justice has been to Germany what Germany has been to literature
what Germany has been to genocide
I think about Ilya Ehrenburg’s warning about the final victory of fascism
His grave warnings to men are what his idealisms have been to erudite Harvard employees
focused on “Major Gifts” at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
The fuckers call Ehrenburg “controversial”
The fuckers called Arendt “controversial” too
I think of Joseph Stalin being a man sending the 15 year old son of Andrey Platonov to Siberian gulags
Hitler made a fool of Stalin and Stalin made everyone around him cry and now the UC Berkeley
president sent your name–a holly name you chose for yourself after deciding to not kill
yourself–to the IDF reserve officers stationed at the White House
You weren’t the only name
You are one of 160, one of 6 million, one of 20 million, one of 67,000 & counting
Man is to Man what Treblinka is to train stations, what Robert McNamara to rice farmer
Geography of man is scattered frozen pieces of charred bodies along Elbe River cutting through
Dresden to Gaza’s Al-Basma IVF Centre
I think of Chemistry and all I see are lipstick marks on his armpits
I left them there because I’m attracted to disaster & I want to warn
Fascism is to man what power is to Vatican
Meaning is to man what man is to representations of limit experiences in the 20th century
Man is to poetry Ike to Tina
What I am to now
Nina Ruth Mir (they/them) is a transfemme refugee from Iran living in San Francisco. Their work has appeared in the Left Berlin website, New Orleans Review and the Evergreen Review journals. They teach at SF State University and do other part-time gigs to stay housed. International Mens Day is November 19.
