Him:Tender by Frederick Joseph

A poem for the practices of love, compassion, empathy, reflection, and brotherhood.

Him:Tender
by

Frederick Joseph

Is laughter the reclamation of humanity? Deep bellied.

Shall we find out? This way, brother.

Between the lines of their definition for masculine.

Where we chuckle like children, until our faces hurt.

And help build each other up, until out hands are calloused.

Or we can just sit and be silent, if you need.

Frederick Joseph is a two-time New York Times bestselling author of The Black Friend and Patriarchy Blues. He is also the author of Better Than We Found It and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - The Courage to Dream. He was recognized for the International Literacy Association’s 2021 Children’s & Young Adults’ Book Award, is a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list-maker for marketing and advertising, an activist, and philanthropist. He was also honored with the 2018 Comic-Con Humanitarian of the Year award and is a member of the 2018 “The Root 100" list of Most Influential African Americans. Frederick consistently writes about marketing, culture, and politics for The Huffington Post, USA Today, NowThisNews, The Independent, and Cosmopolitan, among others.

His forthcoming works are the novel, This Thing of Ours, and children’s book, Planting Hope. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Subscribe to his newsletter, In Retrospect.