Ivan Ang – Lit Boys

 

Ivan Ang – Lit Boys


Maybe not all males are made the same.

Not all brains come with the

Masculine wirings of formulas or

Metal linings coupled with engineered precision. ALLITERATION,

Not even with the capacity

For profit making or any notion

Lacquered with the jargon of computational algorithms.

–

Maybe some of us are Lit Boys. 

Made and moulded differently. CONSONANCE, ASSONANCE

More flesh than metal.

More understanding than calculative,

More theoretically profound than physically sound.

The sum of these parts, though different,

Does not make us less male.

–

We are Lit Boys.

We can find humour in any cellular and atomic object.

We can see tragedy in every moving being.

We can taste irony in every line.

We can smell sarcasm in any tone.

We can pick out any feeble argument.

We can identify any fallacious claim.

We can write the most annoying prose

To the sweetest letter you will ever read.

–

We are Lit Boys.

We breathe in syntax

And lick metaphors off our lips.

Banality is deadly to us.

We are allergic to mediocrity.

We transform the quotidian into the Sublime

And inject double entendres into words we use.

We feast on puns and make

A psychoanalytical killing on slips of the Freudian type.

–

We are Lit Boys.

We are not gay and we are not nerds.

We protect ourselves with the weightless curtain of verbosity,

Each word we use more acrid than the last.

We know no control.

The World is our Text.

And we read it till its Pages tatter before us,

And still we read.

–

We are Lit Boys.

Always already made different.

Subject to sporadic misery in a nugatory attempt ENJAMBMENT

To find meaning in the heap of meaninglessness.

We remain in a place that has the least need for us.

Still we remain.

Still we live,

Despite them walling us up with bricks

Packed tight with pragmatic density.

We give in, we bow and we will go as far as

To tear our larynx out and sever our hand tendons. HYPERBOLE

Still they run us down,

Desperate to sterilize us.

–

We are not like other boys.

We are Lit Boys.

We are different.

We read, we write, we speak

Even when they systemically inter us

FREE VERSE: open form, it's an ethnopoem that challenges the norm, oppositional poetry is about society as a whole, and Ivan Ang challenges society's views on males that are looked down upon because of their apparent lack of traditional masculinity. 

Orally performed, aiming to debunk mainstream stereotyping of 'Lit boys'.

TONE: indignant, proud, in "we are not like other boys", and the heavy use of Anaphora to reinforce the voice by repetition that the voice does not want to be taken lightly of. and to add weight and seriousness to the tone of the poem. It is here to prove a point and make a stand for their misunderstood condition/the undesirable association of "gayness" they're stuck with from being less masculine/ by having different/divergent interests compared to others.

Not all brains come with the

Masculine wirings of formulas or
Metal linings coupled with engineered precision.
Made and moulded differently:  metaphorical allusion to machines that are deemed 'perfect'

We are not like other boys.

We are Lit Boys.

We are different.

We read, we write, we speak

are Short and direct statements that are isolated and given their own lines speak strongly as it allows the reader to focus on them. This drives in the powerful implications of the poem that tells the reader that it is extremely important for them to take home the message, which is that Lit boys shouldn't be mistreated nor belittled.

What is your reaction to the poem?

a) why so? Themes?

-diction: 

-tone: 

-imagery: 

-sound: consonance,

-form: 

What is your understanding of the poem?
a) What is it about? 

-how much of your understanding is influenced by your position?