Get It All Backwards Poem by David Welch

Maria wanted to no longer think,
and stared broodingly upon her mixed drink,
she'd already had one, still felt depressed,
hoped it would mellow once she drank the next.

But then a young man sat down by her side,
said, "Hey beautiful, what's with the sad eyes? "
She just stared at him, not believing this,
the man couldn't be more than twenty-six.

She said, "Shouldn't you find someone more you size,
I'm not some bimbo, I am thirty-five.
I have no time for the lines you would say,
I did not come here looking to get laid."

He just smirked at her, said, "I will admit,
the thought of you naked stirs me a bit,
but I wasn't joking, what I said before,
the look on your face, I just can't ignore.

"I've seen it often, abject depression,
and I learned first hand its horrid lessons,
my brother once had it, suffered for years,
turned his young life into trauma and tears.

"Until two years back, he could take no more,
we found hi dead on his own bedroom floor,
I see the same fatigue now in your face,
so if you need to talk, I'll hear what you say."

She didn't know if to believe him at first,
but in his eyes she sensed genuine hurt,
said, "If you ant to help some strange woman,
I guess it's not my place to stop you then.

"Let's start with my job, I'm an attorney,
growing up that was all I wanted to be,
all my teachers told me I would blaze a trail,
I was woman, I was strong, I wouldn't fail.

"They told me I could do anything,
find a career that would be fulfilling,
I would prove that I was nobody's fool,
I crushed undergrad, and breezed through law school.

"Got myself a job at a prestige firm,
made a name for myself, opponents I burn,
I lived out the dream, I guess you could say,
and last year I pulled down $900K.

"I'm that ‘strong' woman with the great career,
I make ‘the patriarchy' shiver with fear,
you think all this success would be enough,
but every day I feel like I've screwed up.

"I've been noticing it now for a while,
this instinctive urge to hold a child,
to be surrounded by a family,
and then I think it is too late for me.

"They said career comes first, family can wait,
but who wants to marry women of my age?
And even if I did find the right guy,
between dating, then marriage, time would fly by.

"They once told me that I could have it all,
but ‘empowerment' seems to lead to a fall,
and now I no longer know what to do,
my job cannot love me, that much is true."

The man nodded a bit, taking it in,
then absently stroked the beard on his chin,
said, "Everyone wants hat they think they deserve,
I can't help but think you got it backwards.

"Not you alone, the issue is this:
You've been sold bad advice by feminists,
always seemed to me the kids should come first,
then when they're half-grown you go back to work.

"It's a cold fact of our biology,
women have short windows of fertility,
having a career first seems kind of dumb,
you should marry and have kids when you're young.

"That increases the odds they'll be health,
and then when the grown into early teens,
when they can do basics, take care of themselves,
then go back to work, and bring in the wealth.

"From mid-thirties to sixties, three good decades,
to work up the ladder and earn the good pay,
by that time you'll know quite much of the world,
and be far smarter than some college girl."

She looked at him as he continued to drink,
said, "There may b some truth in what you think,
but can't go back, do it over you see,
so how exactly will such words help me? "

He shrugged. ‘None can undo their past mistakes,
but perhaps the cycle our children can break.
You're just thirty-five, you still have some time,
you could pass it on to those down the line.

"And as for yourself, it's clear you're your thoughts
that there's more to you then just being hot,
were I ready to settle down in life,
I could do much worse than you for a wife."

She just eyed the young man, gave him a wan grin,
it had been six moths since she'd gotten some trim,
and despite the words she earlier did say,
the alcohol was now having its way.

They went to her place, he wasn't half-bad,
though she never would him after that,
but the words he'd spoken somehow remained,
for long months she shewed them over in her brain.

It went against everything she had been taught,
but more and more she saw sense in his thoughts,
though at her age such knowledge didn't mean much,
but then later that year she fell in love.

Just six months in she and her man did wed,
Maria ever felt alone in bed,
they had two daughters, impossibly cute,
better late then never, but Maria knew

That those two girls, in good time, would com ask
how to juggle children along with work tasks,
she'd think of that man, and his logic straight,
then sit her girls down and try to explain…