[Verse 1]
Who would be born into a mans's man's man's world?
But what do children care
For grownups' despair
A house can hold both boy and girl

[Verse 2]
Every mother's son grows up
And daughters imitate
And the burden of a careworn world
Is his to bear—hers to wait

[Chorus]
As the open world of a tomboy girl
Closes on a growing wife
From a childhood clear
Through teenage years
That always seem to be more
Trouble than strife

[Verse 3]
From the hot dark of night
To the cold light of day
From the cradle to wife to grave
Unless I stand in the way
[Chorus]
As the open world of a tomboy girl
Closes in with growing strife
For my own sake I'll comfort take
To know I'd never make a wife
As the open world of a tomboy girl
Closes in with growing strife
For my own sake I'll comfort take
In the knowledge that I'd never make a wife

[Instrumental]

[Chorus]
You hear them talk of women's way
With hatred, and it cuts me like a knife
Poor men, so much to bear
The children and the trouble and strife
The open world of a tomboy girl
Is the best of life
From a childhood clear
You end up here
In trouble and strife
In trouble and strife
Trouble and strife
Trouble and strife, hey