Waiting Game

The waiting game begins;
scene is set, actors fresh
and ready for the fray but
not a word is uttered yet,
nothing heard to start the
play on words of warring
genders set in clay, fixed
in clefts absurd by never-
ending septs acclaimed
as proof to win the day

the mood begins aloof in
gauzy femininity a word
they say exists as truth in
speech so one may seek
without a need to prove a
right to speak and yet still
say the things one thinks
agreed without explaining –
and you must hear or lead
yourself at peace away

and where the power to
disagree demurs in shades
of masculinity the words
offset from lips redressed by
blows of fists which asked of
whose authority this came
we level fields and fill the
cavities aware the peace
is merely temporary until
she says – you will desist
© 21 May 2008, I. D. Carswell