Y Chromosome Deficiency

I just finished reading a book called Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps. I found it to be very funny and very enlightening. If you've ever wondered why men and women are so different this little book not only gives plausible answers as to why, it even gives common sense advice about how to deal with our differences. Written by a husband and wife team, Barbara and Allan Pease, they have managed to work together, live together, and raise four children. They claim to still like each other so they must be doing something right. It would seem that I was channeling some of their ideas long before I read their book. Three and a half years ago I wrote the following poem and since it suits today's subject matter I thought I should post it.

Y Chromosome Deficiency

We're mostly the same

Anatomy wise

There are minor variations

Involving length and breadth and size

And our coloring runs the rainbow

In our skin and hair and eyes

Underneath all that we're human

The casual observer would surmise

But when it comes to men and women

The gulf between us is no surprise

We speak in different languages

Eavesdropping verifies

Our brains are steeped in hormonal cocktails

To varied behaviors this gives rise

Can we appreciate our separate completeness?

Realizing this edifies

Like it or not we need each other

History exemplifies

So for the sake of peacemaking

For these last two lines I apologize

But am I merely y-chromosome deficient?

Or are your balls ovaries in disguise?