Separate but Equal
By Juliet LeClerc

an do anything
Any man
Can do
Probably better
Be intelligent
Be athletic
Be all you can be
Be feminine
Be elegant and polite.
Speak when spoken to
A child is seen and not heard
Be polite
Just do it
Assertion not aggression
Do men have curves?
Can men give birth?
Not yet…
Never age
Yet a man with grey hair is distinguished
How did that happen?
Endless contradictions
Being a woman
Doesn’t mean
Using sex to get ahead
But using your ‘sex’ to be better.
Competing correctly
Not underhandedly
Remembering the community
of other women.
Men and women are the same in many ways but
Completely different
A continuous contradiction.