by Jean Cross
Many of us are familiar with Rudyard Kipling's classic poem, IF and while it is a wonderful poem in many ways, it always bothered me how all the lofty aspirations chronicled culminate in being a man and dominating the world. I thought about the realities of women's lives and how far removed they seemed from this vision of nobility. LIFE is the result.
I
If you can have your friend sit in your kitchen
with troubles piled, not knowing what to do
and ease her cares and help her just by listening
and know that she would do the same for you
If you can lend your voice to joy and laughter
and sing and dance to some old blissful song
but keep your wits when facing a disaster
and know when something's right and something's wrong
II
If you can keep your head above the water
when everywhere the tides against you rise
If you can weep whenever tears are called for
but know that thought and action there applies
If you can put aside your own ambitions
and find the means, long after he is gone,
to feed and clothe and house your child or children
when you don't have the will to carry on
III
If you can trust yourself and your decisions
but of your own mistakes you are aware
If you can walk with pride amidst derision
which seeks to put you down and keep you there
If you have taken blows and cuts and kickings
and struggled to maintain your self esteem
and rose to get out with your meagre pickings
and dared to be so bold as still to dream
IV
If you can do six things in sixty seconds
and fix and build and organise and run
If you can light the torch when justice beckons
and fight until the fight is o'er and won
If you can summon all that you must summon
to pass a day in quiet dignity
Then, the chances are that you're a woman
and more that this no earthly form can be.
