THE DODOS OF OUR DAY

The Dodos of Our Day 

Pity the pretend defenders of decency, 
the protests of baffled bullies in the pulpits 
of patriarchal privilege who’ve long relied 
on the fiction of feminine weakness and sin 
to justify the unearned dominion of males 
so easily distracted, disturbed and undone 
by the merest glimpse of soft flesh, of female skin 
that the only way to control themselves is to 
smother women and girls under cover of veils 
and social rules that treat all issues intimate 
as property safe only in male possession. 
Pity those cold and desperate to re-assert 
authority over bodies not theirs, frantic 
with fear of women thinking, working, threatening 
the oppressive cultish deference to all parts 
masculine required to preserve the lie of strength 
exposed in equality, in women living 
by their own choices, without “father’s” permission. 
Sad it is to see the Akins, Imams, Romneys 
irrational flailing ignorance in defense 
of a “right” devoted to hiding the ego 
fragility of the few who must be “in charge” 
to feel secure, the few who over-compensate 
for their own faults with weapons and words demeaning. 
Pity them, so dependent on their own fiction 
that just a little truth can mean their extinction.

(Marthe G. Walsh)

The flightless dodo bird is extinct, but it's human namesake is not...alas.

Many thanks to Marthe for the poem.