A poem about gender roles I wrote as an egg.

    Like a girl

From the beginning, girls and boysAre raised in wildly different ways:We're meant to play with different toys,We're shamed or praised for equal traits.

Though I've been groomed to be a man,Deep down, our nature can't be changed.They hope I'm careless and brave,                and aggressive and bold,                and well-spoken and suave,                and detached, even cold.

But I'm sensitive and frail.I'm not an alpha male.Whenever I try it, I hopelessly fail.

Girls have plenty they can wearCute or stylish -- it's all there!A fine dress, and heads are turned;A cute skirt, their frown's adjourned.The gray manhood can't compare,And it frankly isn't fair...

I can't think of a planFor what's bound to unfurl.They're expecting a man,Yet I think like a girl.

Note: I've written this poem before realizing I'm a trans woman. I have since learned there's nothing wrong with manhood -- the problem was that I'm not a man, myself.

-- Lady Scarecrow