Global Comment

Worldwide voices on arts and culture

Feminine Factory

Women just have to
Take care of their needs—

She mends her arresting armor,
She sculpts her striking sheath,
She fine-tunes her fetching frame.

She cannot rely on a man for everything.
Men exhibit only impaired judgment:

If life is of no immediate necessity,
There’s nothing necessarily to judge.
Men admire their judgment as perversely pleasing.

Women’s work does not end so easily.
And there’s no end to what they pass.

She lures the languid onlooker,

She appraises the shapely shoreline,

She carts the crotchety combatant.

She cannot rely on a man for anything.
Men exhibit only impractical methods:

They pretend to visualize a problem,
But their biases always cramp the solution.
Men revere their practicality as neurotically stable.

Women tailor their solutions to suit their needs.
Imagine finding enough lifetimes to finish it all.

She finishes balancing her scales,
She detaches from her daily construction,
And she appears at ease to the naked eye.