Resolve

Let's face it, what's needed here
is a little of that backbone kind of thing -
the set of the chin, that wide-legged stance
of cowboys - no-one will mess with them
or helmsmen with a tight hold on the wheel,
both eyes on the future's horizon.
It's time to toughen up, to take a stand
to say what's what, put both fists
on your hips like Peter Pan.
No Disney saccharine but something raw -
the truth, the taste of it as fierce as cheese
that makes your mouth roof sing.
It's time to stride those vast lands of your own,
walk the borders with a riding crop
stropping the calf of your boot
and at your heel, the obedient dog
who takes your word as law.
No softening, not now, no vaselined lens
no sound of strings - your heart's
a muscle, nothing more, so straighten up
that spine, look what you've got
and what you've done
straight on in the eye, live with it.