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Friday 14 March 2014

Daughters

Daughters

When did it start to happen?
Was it as soon as you were born?
Or was it even earlier
As you floated in the amniotic fluid?
Or even at the moment of conception
In a complex interplay
Of genes and chromosomes
That the differences began?

The females of my species
Developed along a very different path
From the ways that I had known
And had their own concerns
That yearned for pink in everything
(When I know full well
That such a colour
Never crossed our minds)
And took to wanting dollies
And kittens and puppies
From a very early age

And then grew up all too quickly
Soon giggling in barricaded bedrooms
Confused by active hormones
Pre-occupied with latest hairstyles
And clothing in the fashion magazines
Or brands of make-up and shampoo
And the sensitive removal of body hair
Or the base behaviour
Of the latest boyfriends
And who fancied who at school

Then the greater changes
Of maturing mind and body
Ripening into an all-at-once adulthood
With its sudden sensibilities
Of the female and the feminine
And the ferocious gender-bonding
Among the sisterhood
And a new respect
For a mother long-ignored
And who had little time for men
The masculine, muscled males
With their loudness and crudeness
Their football and sporting obsessions
And testosterone-driven lives

When did you girls grow into women?
Was it something subtle that I missed?
How did you grow so far apart from me
And became so very different?
And how many years has it taken now
For us to hardly know each other once again?


Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2014

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