Their husbands sit on airplanes
fencing with laptops,
shoot golf on Saturday mornings,
daydream themselves NFL stars
on plasma screens
Mothers now, they know that they
will never win beauty pageants —
Ken is just a doll —
they will never reign
as homecoming queens,
figure skate in the Olympics,
star on the balance beam,
pose on magazine covers
One way or another,
like it or not,
their daughters will