Son of Sonnet—now going by his given name, Michael Gettinger—is back with a mildly post-apocalyptic poem.

The premise is intriguing; Son tells me the request was for “a poem about being a feminist in a world where you’re the only female human left. Every other human is a male.”  That sounds like the premise of a 1970s sci-fi flick!

Naturally, it’s not a great existence, but the feminist seems to realize the error of her ways.  These lines were particularly poignant:  “I learned a lesson through romance/That man may build for woman’s sake.”  How very true—I’ve accomplished a great deal in my life simply because I wanted to impress women.  I think that’s probably true for most men.

With that, here is Michael Gettinger/Son of Sonnet’s “The Ballad of Forgotten Dreams”:

The Ballad of Forgotten Dreams
by Sonnet
For Jii

I wanted more than I could have
To cover up that I was blind.
Subverting all that men had made,
and brought the end of woman-kind.

A called myself a feminist.
I thought my purpose to defy
this feeling that I had inside,
that I could only birth and die.

I learned of strength endowed in man,
and what it meant to fear his hand.
My teachers made me swear a vow
to never wear a wedding band.

But still I loved to need that strength:
the thing I needed to survive.
I traded all that I could give.
and in his bed I felt alive.

They told me love was not enough.
I had to change myself to win.
We wanted to become like men,
forgetting Eve and Origin.

Now “what’s a woman,” is unknown;
my friends transformed to be as one.
they couldn’t question why it came:
the day that womanhood was done.

But something in me was afraid;
I could no longer hold a fist.
I felt if I became a man,
I would no longer coexist.

It came to me by simple chance
that life and city were at stake.
I learned a lesson through romance
That man may build for woman’s sake.

It’s not too late for us to learn,
how grateful we should be at dawn.
There’s nothing good that comes from this:
the day that women are all gone.