I am quite late in posting tonight. I’m going to give you a chance to guess why. (a) I forgot to change my clocks for Daylight Saving Time or (b) I was on the road most of the day driving to Oklahoma. Bing! You guessed it - B. I am never late on setting my clocks (because I don’t do it, my husband does, and he is obsessed with time. I usually remember to set my watch the next day when I have to get to work).

For today, I give you…a poem. Because I don’t have time to write an essay and still get it up today. Same with a story. Even flash fiction takes me longer than a poem.

BORN FEMALE

Being born female
Challenged my coping skills.
I never knew anything else
But I never wanted to role I was taught.
Washing dishes, doing laundry,
Waiting on my brothers
While they got to do cool things like
Microscopes and collecting beetles,
Stomping around in fields and wetlands,
Learning how the world worked.
Only…they didn’t do that.
They didn’t want those things.
I was not allowed.
I was born female.

I showed them.
I did those things as an adult.