My parents and grandparents, my aunts
and uncles, and several of my teachers
were progressive thinkers who thought
that girls, too, could grow up to have careers,
just in case they never married (in which case
of course they wouldn't – or, more precisely,
home and motherhood would be the glorious,
totally fulfilling and naturally preferred career)
but they still believed, those adults of my youth,
unquestioning, that girls couldn't, indeed mustn't
play football, or any of those rough sports,
because that was what boys did: those critters
who were made of slugs and snails and –
you know how it goes.
(The era was the 1940s.)
This grew out of (1) a discussion, 'Exploring our feminine' inspired by the writing of Brooke Medicine Eagle in Buffalo Woman Comes Singing, and (2) an exercise in Wingbeats, to create a one-sentence poem of 14 lines and at least 100 words.
Linked to The Tuesday Platform for June 20 2017 at 'imaginary garden with real toads'.
