The Hidden Thread

The Wordle 

SUNDAY WHIRL

We are asked to use all the words in the Wordle.

THE HIDDEN THREAD

There is thread which winds it way

Through every family tree

And that's the thread of surnames

Which are plain for all to see.

But they're the surnames of the men

The women disappear.

Oh you can find them if you search

But they're not immediately clear.

Like a silver thread the men's names run,

Back through the centuries

Revealing where the power has lain

And where the power still is.

It was a way of thinking

Tied up with biology.

Women's bodies damaged them,

They were bound by maternity.

Childbearing was their single  task

They gave birth just like cattle

Not for them heroics

Of men involved in battle.

As for the single women

They counted even less;

Why record a person

Who was only a governess?

Today our lives are different

We are not so trussed and bound

We wish that this were only true

Within the world round.

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OUT OF SERVICE

"The number you've reached is no longer in service;"

All you are left with is your deep regret.

For far too long you forgot to remember,

And now you are wishing that you could forget.....

Back then, in the old days, her voice was like music,

Then rancour and bitterness reared up between.

The days turned to months and the old world kept turning

And only vague heartache recalled what had been.

'One day' you would say, 'I'll remember her number.

One day' you would say 'I'll just give her a call'.

But one day, alas, very soon became hundreds

And now you are speaking to nothing at all. 

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