BEING A GIRL
My uncle taught me how to make paper boats
that did not sink,
I sailed them in the gutter after heavy rain and
I used to think
That one day I would grow up and run away
down to the sea,
But I was a girl, and I was told for me that
could never be.
My father taught me how to drive a car,
fast I wanted to go,
I dreamt of being a race car driver, but
as you may know
Girls were not allowed to be race car drivers,
a great pain for me,
So growing up as a female person then I
did not want to be.
I could not be a captain of a ship or be first
in a great grand prix,
I was longing to do thinks out of my reach,
what was wrong with me?
I had to think of girly things yet my next
choice was to be a vet,
Girls didn’t do that either and there would
be too much debt.
Boys always had the good fun things to do, I
thought it unfair,
But I must admit I liked pretty dresses and
my long black curly hair.
I made up my mind to do nursing the next
thing I wanted to do,
It was a good choice for me and of boy nurses
there were very few.
I am old and wiser, yet in my dreams a race
car driver I want to be,
I want to sail the seven seas and dream of
things I’d see,
But I know that this can never happen yet
happy I really am,
For my imagination carries me far and wide
a much safer plan.
)Millicent) Ann Margetson 13 July 2004