Shame On Social Mores
successive letters of the alphabet per line using A through S
Ann was born at a time when females lacked rights.
Both strict parents lectured a girl’s purity must be sure.
Chastity, shame and sin were lectured day and night,
Dictating a future marriage in accord with social mores.
Early on, Ann had felt sparkle tinges of faith and hope.
Fraught, these feelings dimmed in society’s grim scope.
Gorgeous and grown at sixteen, her parents did chance
Hank, a farmer, as Ann’s best offered circumstance.
Ignorant all, there was not one thought of romance,
Just opportunity to make Ann a legal, proper wife.
Knots grew in Ann’s heart and her fears were rife,
Lamenting dictates she be Hank’s property for life.
Marriage seasons led to Ann laboring on Hank’s farm -
Necessary blistered hands to atone for his lazy harm.
Oblivion was routinely sought by Hank through drinking,
Pushing Ann to slave and implement her own survival thinking.
Quick to rally grit daily, she tended all crops and chores.
Reality kept Ann working and Hank useless drunk on floors.
Sin and shame, Ann decided, were the dictates of social mores.
... CayCay Jennings
September 4, 2016
Copyright © Caycay Jennings | Year Posted 2016
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