Can-Fed Men

Here's a something-different.
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Pity the can-fed husbands!
The lean ones and the pale!
What tragedy can equal
The hungry, unfed male?

How woe-begone their manner,
What pathos in their mien,
As they devour with gusto
The salmon and the bean!

But with what satisfaction
They tell their martyrs' tales!
Ah, canned meals are the stock in trade
Of all the injured males.

I've wondered what the others
For martyrdom have used,
For even the hand-fed husbands
All yearn to seem abused!

From Songs of a Housewife by Marjorie K. Rawlings. "It's an odd book of poetry, recording in verse all the various complaints and problems of 1920's housewives, such as husbands who complained about being given canned food." (c/o Alex at Weird Universe)