Surrender

Consider the word surrender The joy of delivering responsibility up to a masterful other, A man like my father who sorted everything out! How comfortable, to serve and not to govern! How comfortable to act and not to fret! How comforting to be featherbedded through life With a champion looking out for you Taking the hard knocks, slaying the dragons, Bearding the Minotaur in his stinking den! It is difficult being a woman It is difficult to learn the ways of a gender In love with mirrors, terrified of ageing What harder work is there than childbirth? No primping or preening there, through the looking glass The howl of Agape, of a flesh-door forcibly opened Almost like a rape.