built for the boulders

My mother once said men are stronger than women
only "from the waist up."  She meant the shoulders.

She added women are stronger than men "waist down". 
"To bear children."  And meant the legs.

Or perhaps she meant something else entirely
I did not understand.

Maybe men bear what men can and must.
And women are able to keep a stable ground

in spite of what moves:  changes, seasons, quakes.

Atlas can shrug.
Woman keep her ground.

This is all a matter of conjecture.  Of course.
Not at all unlike Hugo's.

I think about the many women I know.  
Steadfast, how they hold the center:

mother, sister, friends.  And she
who smiles at me when I tell her:

This is the street where that restaurant is.
And even though am not sure, she holds my hand

in the humid, windless night and says, "Let's go."