Legend

Our heritage is full of women rebelling:

First Lilith, then Eve, who refused to fit the mold

In which she was cast: the antidote for Lilith, a model obedient

Wife, now blamed for original sin because she couldn’t conform.

Ruth defied convention when she married a foreigner and was

Rewarded with a place on the family tree of David; Brave Rahab’s

Perceived sexual trespasses didn’t stop her from saving.

Some say Jezebel was only depicted as evil because she dared reign over a man;

The adulteress still exists as a metaphor for Christian treatment of sin.

Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, became pregnant  before she was married-

We’ve built a legend of fear around what was good enough for God and his son.

I was raised with these women as role models, with the

Underlying message that what is scorned by society 

Is good enough for the being that society worships. I refuse,

I will not, hold myself to lower standards. I can

Save the world, be a role model, bring good into the world, I can!

Without the same refrains: Get married, have children,

But wait until you get married, settle down, cover your skin,

Protect yourself, someday you will want children- I

Do not fit this mold, I cannot limit myself to convention, I

Am not afraid of the stones that may be cast when I

Am middle aged and still unmarried, sleeping contentedly

In a bachelor’s life. I, too, am a legend, a myth in the making.

This poem jumped off from here.