The Role Trap

The Role Trap

Did it start this way:

With the wall between and the frozen questions?

Or does it creep like Tide, despite great intentions?

Assume your “Roles”, Line up, Be Assigned!

These are the pathways the decades have defined:

Earner, Bottle Washer, Folder of Clothes

Car Cleaner, Lawn Mower, Wiper of Their Nose.

Floor Mopper, Home Banker, Purchaser of Shoes,

Take Away Getter, Bed Maker -

Deliverer of Abuse.

Martyr to the Stereotype, Depressive in the House

Fastidious Worker, Big Earner,

Beleaguered, Downtrodden Spouse.

Resentment sighs at the sink, marigolds the chain

Disappointment locks the door at night and bedtime again.

Love turns to a prison cell, where the role call sets cement

The bed a place of separate limbs, of space, silent dreams,

Sad lament.

For, you see –

The Tern’s tail turns on a knife edge,

The wind is a fickle fiend.

Plough tracks swallow the cart wheel

Self to definition of role demeaned.

CHANGE THE SCRIPT! Swap the jobs.

Separate Self from Task.

Cherish the wild bird in their heart

In uniqueness bathe and bask.