And the Time Is: Poems, 1958-2013

Womankind

339 Womankind Begin with childbirth. Though men beget what women bear, no one denies that bearing is the harder job. Medea silenced all of Jason’s military bombast with six words, “You could not face childbirth once.” Onward to nurturing . . . . However tasteful their providers, women have a way of making anything provided better. And what of rearing and protecting the young . . . . Seeing their offspring threatened or harmed, mothers can be roused to rage the way a lioness with cubs at risk can be more lethal than a lion. As for concern? Women are known to care for loved ones to the end, and afterward revere their memories with even more devotion. What else? Less often with women than with men, the dice of dalliance will find excuses to be cast. What more? 340 In sculpture, painting or photography the female figure nude appears in unadorned indifference. Speaking of figures, the female body is described by some as floral in its very architecture, graceful in motion or at ease but still with all its mysteries concealed. That makes for undeniable attraction, and women undeniably attract. Why else did Victor Hugo write, “A woman naked is a woman armed.” Is that deniable? ...