Androcentric

Mother writhed in pain

Wriggled in strain:

I was born to cheers

And uncorking of beers.

Still in bed me mother was fixed

To me father's name was suffixed;

All my actions like my mother's emotion

Worked only with his sanction.

I was wed with pomp and band

Sat on my dad's lap and switched over to husband;

I, the man's tensile shadow exist in tacit ways

Stretching back in morn's slanting rays,

Extant still at noon

Like a shrunken gnomon

Stretching back in evening light

To disappear freely at night.

When I got and reared my son

It was real great fun;

All my functions and actions

Survived without reactions and reciprocations.

Now old and without smooth skin

And around me without any kith or kin

And with unusual fears

And unnoticed tears

Am I forlorn? Or free to be alone?

How do I know without dad, husband, brother or son.