Scientists of Scheme

Men are sketchy: gusts of immateriality –

kindergarten paste and chalk eraser dust –

women know men’s breadth and length: they must

in order to manipulate them in their realms of surreality –

all lost in dream. Women are the scientists of scheme:

they see the thing in front

for what it is: they lightly bear the brunt

of men’s effrontery as if it were a tiny gleam

in some frail infant’s eye.

It’s a wonder women deal with men at all.

Some women don’t, of course. They let men brawl

in war and die. It’s a wonder any man gets by.

.