Day 19
So, the debate still rages, right? Do women like pink because they used to pick berries on the savannah? Seriously? Do women even like pink? Some do, of course. There's nothing inherently wrong with the color. But how often do you see full grown women, who pick their own clothes, dressed in pink?
Did men hunt the mammoth while women foraged for berries? It's hard to be sure, isn't it, because behavior doesn't exactly fossilize. We tend to read what little evidence we have through the lens of our own experience, because that's what we know. We do know some other things, though. Such as, women actually didn't spend time making cookies and vacuuming in pearls through much of history, the 1950s was an aberration, and the smile on June Cleaver's face was probably induced by alcohol and Valium. In reality, women often worked alongside men at some truly difficult jobs, and often for less pay and less recognition. Who took care of their kids? Well, in the past, the kids often joined them in the field, in the factory, or wherever else, as soon as they were big enough. So, just to honor all the women who have worked their way through history without acknowledgment, for the women who made discoveries that ended up with men's names on them, the women who invented things that their husbands claimed, or who wrote things pretending to be men...for the women who labored in poverty alongside their husbands...for the women who died in childbirth, or suffered from sustained abuse...this poem is for you, for all of us, no matter where we find ourselves.
TODAY
Today I was picking berries,
Pink, ripe, juicy berries
Just the kind you like.
I was picking berries for you
While you hunted the mammoth.
Today you were hunting the mammoth,
Big, woolly, dangerous,
Lots of juicy meat.
You were hunting the mammoth for me
While I picked berries.
Tonight we’re eating berries,
Ripe, juicy berries,
Big nutritious berries.
We have no meat
Because the mammoth got away.
Today I went to work,
Leaning over the sewing machine
Making shirts to bring in money.
Today I went to work
But the fire meant I didn’t come home.
Today I went into labor,
To bring your child into the world
So you could have an heir.
Today I went into labor
And I never woke up.
Today I hauled water,
Bringing cold, fresh liquid from the well
So you could have your coffee.
Today I hauled water
From miles away from home.
Today I lit the fire,
Hauled the wood and struck the flint
To warm our cozy home.
Today I lit the fire
And the flames consumed me.
Today I went to war,
Supported our troops by becoming
A soldier carrying a gun.
Today I went to war
And a fellow soldier raped me.
Today I walked the streets,
Looking for a man who would buy me
So I could feed my child.
Today I walked the streets
Until a man handed me a twenty.
Today I ran for office,
Tried to break the final barrier
And put a woman in the White House.
Today I ran for office
And they voted for misogyny.
Today I made your breakfast,
Cooked the eggs and fried the bacon
Crisp the way you like them.
Today I made your breakfast
Then I went off to earn some more.
Today I woke up,
The same way I wake every day
In a woman’s body, with a woman’s life.
Today I woke up
And faced another day of the same old shit.