Lament of the Working Wife, A Sonnet

by Christina Pacek

My husband, he thinks he is really great.

He brags on all he does around the house.

He thinks that washing clothes and scraping plates

Makes him the world’s most monumental spouse.

Although he says he’s all for equal rights,

And men and women don’t have separate chores,

He’d really love to have me cook most nights,

As he lies on the couch and naps and snores.

My husband thinks that it’s unmasculine

To scour and scrub the toilet bowl with gloves.

He says that I could never find a man

To do the liberal "female" things he does.

When next he says that something’s "women’s work,"

I’ll tell him he’s a chauvinistic jerk!