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Man Makes Man



Dedicated to all the men who have shaped and formed me over the years






Only steel forges steel in the smithy's store
              Where bellows blow and fan                    
The hammer strikes where iron burns bright give 
        Glory when man makes man              

Father's bond with son is fire-forged not
By blood but force and heat
Discipline fans flame and wisdom's thunder
Pounds sound in measured beat

A boy may declare himself fully grown
Thinks he's great, thinks he can
Yet boy needs furnace to mold his heart since
Only man can brand man 

Shall a tender flower wield the hammer
That batters steel to form?
Can a willow withstand the withering heat
Of the forge's scorching storm?

A woman's birth pain ends but a man's true
Labor is forging soul
The contours, the hewed lines of character
To shape is mentors' role

No man forms another on his own but
Each smith serves his design
Chisel, tongs, and bellows work as one while
Anvil with sledge combine

The fraternity of brothers join to
Unite as master guild
Where apprentices attain the higher craft of
One's purpose to fulfill

Male female alike emerge from the womb
Without woman who could stand?
So honor due our mother-roots but cry       
Glory when man makes man
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