Don’t forget us,
Women of a certain age
We’ve been in trenches
Working toiling; seeking space,
Shut out from place
We have homes
ideas, marriages, babies.
Intentions grown in rhizomes
Did we have voice?
We cast our spells
Flourish you seeds we thought we planted
Murky that water we still swim
Get in line
look fine
Don’t ask why
Show up
Usher the littles
Emotional Labor
deprives physical and spirit from tending
One hand bound to a structure
designed to exclude.
Yet we are of the earth. We are Earth
Silenced by greed
Disinherited by patriarchs.
Some opt out.
Others sacrifice dreams to stay in.
contribute we do
create harmony with what
She gave us
Take risk from the shadows
to protect
All the while we tolled
and were told
Don’t be
tenacious
bossy
loud or
opinionated.
We follow life forces
believe, focus
and love
navigate pitfalls
Access to “privilege”
merely the cost of a ticket
Which preserves
status quo of exclusivity and exclusion.
Shed the acquired self, she a cowardly lioness
Silent no more
Mothers
fierce goddesses
return glass ceilings to sand
Face offspring with apologies,
I didn’t reimagine it fully enough
Face pressed to the glass
arms full of scraped knees
hands combing knits
while dryer signals, fold me
If I had, maybe a rapist wouldn’t be president
Maybe reparations would have happened
ethnic cleansings prevented, lands returned
Maybe mothers wouldn’t have babies taken
from their arms
We drown in the poverty, injustices
No more delusions. No more out of sight
out of mind
let the bells ring out
“no thank you, enough"
step in step up
We are not exploiters nor victims.
We are you, we are us,
never forget.
Vermont
Women of a certain age
We’ve been in trenches
Working toiling; seeking space,
Shut out from place
We have homes
ideas, marriages, babies.
Intentions grown in rhizomes
Did we have voice?
We cast our spells
Flourish you seeds we thought we planted
Murky that water we still swim
Get in line
look fine
Don’t ask why
Show up
Usher the littles
Emotional Labor
deprives physical and spirit from tending
One hand bound to a structure
designed to exclude.
Yet we are of the earth. We are Earth
Silenced by greed
Disinherited by patriarchs.
Some opt out.
Others sacrifice dreams to stay in.
contribute we do
create harmony with what
She gave us
Take risk from the shadows
to protect
All the while we tolled
and were told
Don’t be
tenacious
bossy
loud or
opinionated.
We follow life forces
believe, focus
and love
navigate pitfalls
Access to “privilege”
merely the cost of a ticket
Which preserves
status quo of exclusivity and exclusion.
Shed the acquired self, she a cowardly lioness
Silent no more
Mothers
fierce goddesses
return glass ceilings to sand
Face offspring with apologies,
I didn’t reimagine it fully enough
Face pressed to the glass
arms full of scraped knees
hands combing knits
while dryer signals, fold me
If I had, maybe a rapist wouldn’t be president
Maybe reparations would have happened
ethnic cleansings prevented, lands returned
Maybe mothers wouldn’t have babies taken
from their arms
We drown in the poverty, injustices
No more delusions. No more out of sight
out of mind
let the bells ring out
“no thank you, enough"
step in step up
We are not exploiters nor victims.
We are you, we are us,
never forget.
Vermont