indispensable

Week of August 20

THE ARTICLE:
"Men, Who Needs Them?"
By GREG HAMPIKIAN
August 24, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/opinion/men-who-needs-them.html

THE GIST:
Are men really necessary?  Not according to Greg Hampikian.  Hampikian paints a bleak picture for the role of man in mankind, pointing out that women could continue to repopulate the species with the current supply of frozen sperm if men were entirely wiped out.  Women are essential for carrying a child to term and passing nutrients and antibodies through breastfeeding, all while a man doesn't need to be present. And as children grow up, studies have shown that poverty is what hurts children the most, not the number or gender of parents.  As mammals, we are even named for the mammary glands functional only in a  woman.  Women have outnumbered men in college since the 1980s and have increasingly chosen motherhood without a father along for the ride.  So are men absolutely crucial for society?

THE POEM:
indispensable

we never took seriously
the TV marathons
or pints of ice cream
after they left

the chorus of
who needs him
from our
estrogen allies
weren't real
in the long run

but our clocks are ticking

and women of thirty
have an anxious relationship
with time

do you want children
has become
do I want to be a
single mother

we take comfort in science
knowing we could
continue the species
on our own
with frozen contributions
from the men
who have died
or ones we've
never known

you are named
for our breasts

take that

I pass homeless couples
spooning on the church steps

listen as a gay couple
discusses their adoption plans

and it's wedding season
says Facebook

the last one who left
never shared
the days I counted
until I was sure

the male body
is a luxury

the female body
is the big bang

I re-appropriate
his absence
into a choice
to go it alone

unlike my father,
he has not made himself
indispensable