Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

My fingertips are frozen blue,
I’m boiled and casting clothing.
Were I a man, it would be ‘flu…
I read reports with loathing
That womankind copes better
Going viral in this manner,
And while my nose gets wetter
I’m afraid I have a spanner
To cast right into this fallacy
Designed by persons nameless…
And promulgated callously…
That man-flu should be blameless.

I have a choice of two, I feel,
On whom to point the finger…
One worked to keep an even keel,
The other didn’t linger
Long enough for me to blame him
(Though with motherly discretion
I don’t think that I need name him –
And the bug made no impression.)

While many writers dream of going viral for a day…
This isn’t how to do it… and that’s all I have to say.

I wish to debunk a myth. Men are not less able to cope with…