Brick (Poetry)

‘He is a brick’ —
what does that mean?
is it some shorthand way of saying
he fits inbetween
other straight-up guys
who do their bit —
stand incomplaining
shoulder to shoulder, feigning
solidarity — a human wall
that doesn’t think or feel at all?

Maybe it’s said dismissively —
they judge him way too thick —
too ordinary
to build himself a better life
or imagine he might ever wish
to carve out his own niche
discover an identity
free from a uniform society —
achieve the potential of a self-fired clay —
and be a rolling stone.