SHREWS
AND SAINTS
There
are two sorts of wives,
shrews
or saints,
but
only one sort of husband,
he
who must be obeyed,
not
teased or slighted.
Saints
of course submit.
Shrews
though, must fake it.
I
wonder what other role
I
could have chosen
since
equality is impossible
And
isolation difficult.
I
am no saint
and
I would rather not be a shrew,
but
in the end, saint or shrew,
we
part our legs and let men in.
It
is in receiving that we give birth
and
in giving birth we submit
to
our children's future
arbitrated
by our men.
It
seems that we are made to receive.
Alas!
The curse of women
for
as the New Testament says -
'It
is better to give than to receive.'
I
would like to be a giver -
though
not of blows.
I
could be an arbitrator too perhaps?
I
cannot find a just marriage however,
to
predicate as a possible solution
to
the problem of marital disharmony.
Perhaps
that is why God
advised
men to pull rank?
Pity
that it leaves woman as antithesis.
Copyright Ruth
Hartley 1980? Independence Avenue, Lusaka
