The weaker sex
How delicate, how easily upset --
they go to pieces when you least expect it --
how easy to despise they are, and yet
there's that in them that cries to be protected.
How hard, how tough they seem to be at first,
how brawny, noisy, hairy and unwashed.
Respect their armor and they'll face the worst,
but break that shell and they are easily squashed.
There is no there, there. Someone must have erred.
Narcissus was a man, remember. An
indulgent smile or sigh, a careless word
can make a tapioca of a man.
Without their womenfolk's cooperation
they never would have gained their reputation.
April 2, 1979