vulnerability

first, i cannot speak for all women
or claim a united voice,
i can only tell you my truth.

and my truth is this:
a man who is kind,
a man who listens,
a man who is vulnerable and honest,
that is the man i want to make me weak in the knees.

i can tell you that to see a man vulnerable is, at first, a scary thing.
it is scary in a way that is unnerving, unfamiliar, disruptive.
and that is on me.

the intensity of having someone be completely authentic
is unsettling because it forces acknowledgement of this truth:
in order for us to tolerate imperfection and vulnerability in other people,
we have to be able to accept what is imperfect in ourselves.