A Woman's Lines

Those lines from Ruth which speak today
Of bidding not to send away,
Are lines come from a woman's lips
Spoke from the place where woman sits.

But not for men in that same sense
Are spoke those words, ’twould be nonsense;
But there's a way they can be true
For men – such words I say to you:

I will not try not to go too fast;
I'll slack my pace and you I'll clasp
With heart, and head, and soul, and mind –
Our lives will thus be inter-twined.

We're wired quite different – near the start,
Those men of science did remark,
Most males some changes undergo
Before their birth which makes it so –

So for us males right brain and left
Sequential use: we fight; we heft;
These are perfected for our roles
When off to fight some war we go.

While females, left brain and their right
Find use together – not for fight
But for life's deep complexities –
Relationship is one of these.

At words of Ruth I look anew,
Consider who they're spoken to,
And see another aspect there,
Adjusting view as I compare –

What I had thought, not what I see,
It's not to ‘place’ the words there be,
But to relationship most deep
Ruth’s words first spoke of deepest need –

‘Where you will go’; ‘where you will die’;
‘Be buried there’; ‘together hie’;
Speak to a deep relationship,
Defying space because of it.

So space may change in life or death;
What's spoken of, light on her breath,
Is constancy – walk from this day
‘Together thence’ those words convey.

In that sense, yes, they’re words for men
But I don't hear men's stance in them –
‘Come be with me, live, die with me’–
Such leader's words are men's, you see.

But leaders cannot venture forth
So fast they leave behind, of course,
Their other half of deepest life –
Thus leadership's a dance with wife.

Some say of leadership, ‘no need’
To sally forth on great white steed;
But they don't get the needs of men –
Their drives, their thoughts, don't comprehen.

We're wired to focus, contemplate
How best to win, and undertake
Those tasks which onward move us forth;
And when we do, there comes self-worth.

These days of peace illusion are,
As though all wars were gone by far;
How fast things change, then we make haste –
Defend our homes from needless waste.

The ways of peace are not for war;
Nor ways of war, when peace is more;
I peace prefer, and greed eschew,
Am not inclined to think as fool.

We've had a respite in this land,
Domestic wars not close at hand;
But past's not future, that I see,
And others act upon their greed.

The only reason we have peace –
Our lands resources we release
At prices low, we throw away
Tomorrow's wealth like it's today.

But time will come when we'll run out,
Or shortages will raise the shout
Of conflict as in days of yore,
‘Seize’ or ‘release’, ‘we must have more’.

Then men will rise and clash again
Lands flow with blood – to seize, retain;
Just like today in plenty's time
In struggles for what's ‘yours’ and ‘mine’.

Some women think men are absurd,
‘From nation’s songs strike all such words’,
But when the issue’s head does rise
They'll back their men: ‘fight and reprise’.

Both Ying and Yang of life are there;
And mixed with greed, we best not dare
To live as though what is today
Will last forever in this way.

If we want peace, as claim we do,
Then ways of war we must eschew
Not later when all hell breaks out
But now, in how we go about.

For we have gained the upper hand;
Life easy is in this fair land;
We came by this with bigger guns –
Defence of it quite deeply runs.

But others grow quite tired of this;
Their troubled lives have no such bliss;
How long will they eke out a life –
Their children sick, with dying wife.

What e'er the cause, there will be war
Twixt those who have, or want some more;
Then life with its complexity
Will find its focus – ‘fight for me’.

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