Counterculture

Certainly the roguishness 

and the swagger

are part of the bastion of your being

the self that you have made

to put on display to the world 

to measure how you are set

into the social fabric 

like a strong rivet 

reinforcing the established order 

so that men can continue to 

trawl the streets with their eyes

and women to swoon

into their arms.

I’ve no objection 

having always been fond

of boots and a sword myself

and turning the world on its head

by matching the boys 

drink for drink 

while roistering as wildly 

as any of you

again I will challenge 

the gallant crowd 

to tell stories that I can’t outclass 

with the truth of my adventures. 

Let’s hear it 

for the orthodoxy 

of counterculture 

because your traditional road

is still the one

that makes mine possible.