Trouble and Strife

Who would be born into a mans's man's man's world?

But what do children care

For grown ups' despair

A house can hold both boy and girl

But every mother's son grows up

And daughters imitate

And the burden of careworn world

Is his to bear

--Hers to wait

As the open world of a tomboy girl

Closes on a growing wife

From a childhood clear

Through teenage years

That always seem to be more

Trouble than strife.

From the hot dark of the night

To the cold light of day

From the cradle to wife to grave

Unless I stand in the way

As the open world of a tomboy girl

Closes in with growing strife

For my own sake I'll comfort take

To know I'd never make a wife

As the open world of a tomboy girl

Closes in with growing strife

For my own sake I'll comfort take

In the knowledge that I'd never make a wife

You hear them talk of women's way with hatred

And it cuts me like a knife

Poor men, so much to bear

The children and the trouble and strife

The open world of a tomboy girl

Is the best of life

From a childhood clear

You end up here

In trouble and strife