a Feminist Paradox Poem by Vera Rich

Life taught me early what I now proclaim:
Males were inferior since time began,
In marriage wife is head and heart and brain,
The merest catalyst is humble man.
So why, by midwives' law whose rubrics run:
'Take such a herb, from such a spring draw water...'
Do I strive so intently for a son?
Should I not trick my husband for a daughter?

IF I could but be sure there'd be no schism
Between her views and those I ever preach...
Were thought inherited... Lysenkoism
Is heresy, geneticists now teach.
So I might breed a brat all prune-and-prism,
Soft hands and silken curls and skin of peach!