I keep the books at the country courthouse
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And answer phones of every kind from coast to coast
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Help keep the astronauts in space with complicated formules
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And give you echoes of my voice in song
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I wash your dishes iron your shirts and give you children
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And never mind a bit except when you forget
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That I am flash of your flash and bone of your bone
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And that Adam called me woman for I am the rib
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And not a footbone to be stepted on not a legbone to be walked on
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Not a hipbone to be sat on not a backbone to be leaned on
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Not a shoulderbone to be cried on not a headbone to be relied on
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But a ribbone to be side by side hand in hand not lesser then
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Not greater then but just what heaven planned
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Yes you see I am the rib
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Many fields have I bought and with my own hands have I planted winyards
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With the fruits of my labors I have reached out to the prove
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Before the light of day I have risen to feed my household
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And my husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land
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My pride is far above rubies but for love trust and respect
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Will I gladly share my gifts and willingly will I walk for good but not for evil
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As long as he remembers that I am the rib
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And not a footbone...
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For I am the rib
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Rib
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| Jeannie C. Riley |
