He only wanted daughters
because he wanted an audience.
Daughters he could entertain.
Daughters would adore him.
He could not stomach the thought of having sons.
He couldn’t tolerate the competition.
A son would want to test him.

Daughters would adore him
and he would adore them
because they were girls and in his world.
They would never compete with him.
They would adore him.

He choose his women, the mothers
of his daughters carefully.
Women with few or no brothers.
Women who would adore him
and produce daughters
who would also adore him.
Daughters who would be women
who would produce no sons.

His father wanted nothing.
His father loved his wife,
the mother of this only son.
But the father could not,
would not, tolerate competition.
So he beat his son and broke him,
produced a son who would not compete.
A son who learned from his father
that it would be best to have
only daughters who would adore him.

 

Janet Cormier is a painter, writes prose and poetry, and performs comedy. JC prefers different and original over pretty. She loves collecting stuff, but cleaning not so much. Janet also talks to strangers…a lot. Her column now appears weekly on Oddball Magazine.