The Underground Economy

The problem's economic, Stu, the leader brought to you;
Her group of mentees face some facts which makes them all feel blue;
Not facts of life built firm on truth, more social cruelty
Which says, “We don't appreciate – you should contented be.

“Contented to get lesser pay; not rise up to the top;
Contented to your candle hide; and sling a soapy mop;
Contented to be walked upon, no value as you are;
Contented to accept the facts of life – ‘You're less by far’.

“For if we keep you in your place as lesser gender type,
There's jobs aplenty for us males, and that's our social right;
So we defined the world to be a place where males can strut,
And throw folks from the mountaintop just like the stags in rut.

“You cannot play our nasty games of struggle for the top,
We need you home and in your place as innocents with mop;
For if you join us in the fray, as you are one with us,
We'd loose our justifying half, ‘one body’ in the fuss.

“For we, as Christian businessmen, still hope to get to heaven;
You are our trump card at the gate, our salt, and light, and leaven;
If you'll stay home and godly be, and we are one in flesh,
We'll both get into eaven, though I strive within this mess.

“You are the only decency within our family set,
Not like those other bi---es whom in business world I've met;
They act like men – quite vicious types – or else they wimp right out –
They have no place in business-world (like us) without a doubt.

“So you be nice, stay out of it, be innocence for us;
Keep home and kids all pure and clean, pour tea, and make no fuss;
Stay beautiful, make comfort-food, relieve our inward stress,
And don't complain about your life as ‘contradictory mess’.

“A little guilt?! – it's not like ours (if ever we looked down);
You worry ’bout the strangest things, just smile, put on your gown;
The education you attained was just to get a man;
You got one, now contented be, get out your baking pan.”

“But value felt for people in this good society,
Is handed out with pay checks based on dollars don't you see?
Where would you be without your work? – at bottom of the heap,
If you were home and I had worked, as man a woman keeps.

“You'd be a laughingstock for all, contempt would flow your way;
You'd feel like women staying home and not receiving pay;
You'd be the lowlife in this town (unless an invalid);
Then you would understand, my friend, and seek this guilt to rid.

“And then you'd understand, my dear, one dollar earns one-vote,
Just like the world of capital, at home you're in that boat;
Votes come to those who earn the cash in this society –
So stuff it, dear, I'm off to work so partial vote I'll see.”

“A partial vote? What do you mean? If you are getting pay
You get a vote, have influence, you can opinion sway;
Don't lay that trip on us, my girl, for women rule the roost –
(And wreck our game with gentleness, insisting on a boost).”

“Sure, we get paid – two thirds – it is an old-boys club at best;
And status? Take a look around, promotion is the test –
How many women at the top, or in our government?
The fifty-fifty gender split is skewed – that's what I meant.

“If you think back to days of yore – you brought it on your heads –
You kept us home to cook and clean and change our family's beds;
You poured contempt on who we were, said ‘Dollars get the votes’;
So we threw down our aprons, put an end to twisted jokes.”

So how can I present the word to women in her group,
Who struggle with what they call ‘guilt’– not coping on their route;
Sins of omission – endless lists of what they fail to do;
It's more they feel inadequate, beneath such social rules.

The magazines for women-folk reflect this social sin;
They contradict themselves with tasks and roles all should be in;
It's not, “There's something here for each, pick up the parts you want”,
But “Do it all if you would get yourselves out of the swamp”.

Men's magazines do not say that to men – quite the reverse;
It's “Pick and choose the life you want”, right from their time of birth.
“The earth and all its treasures lie before you, take your choice;
Then jump right in and play your hand, you're male, you get a voice.”

If I where thus to speak to them and help their gifts to see,
Then show them how to Wish-List make, so they'd authentic be,
I'd just repeat the things I said when I was there before –
If they don't pick it up and live those things – can I say more?

I thought I'd had a heart attack two decades back, one night;
“It's stress”, the doctor said to me, “make changes in your life”;
He left me hooked up to machines, and looking down the street;
I heard two fellows in the hall walk by with message sweet –

One said, “I have re-learned to walk, can make it past the door”;
The other said, “Percentage chance for me to live is more –
It used to be just ten percent, and now it's sixty-five;
If I can get this chance I'll change, I do not want to die.”

I shuddered – “I don't have the time to learn to walk again,
Or struggle through recovery-time from surgery and pain.”
“So Stu,” a voice inside of me brought meaning to this thing,
“When will you start to live your life by Wish-List, gifts – and sing –

With joyfulness, abandon, just like when you were a boy?
This style of life (as others want) is snuffing out your joy;
And like the doctor said to you, “Change now or you will see
A heart attack just like those guys, so what's it going to be?”

So maybe women face that choice just like us silly men;
If they insist on living thus, why should I speak again?
It is a free world after all, and they can buckle down
To what economy hands out, and end up underground.

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