Still on the topic of older women. I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately, the way that older women are ignored or scorned by our youth-loving society. So tonight a poem.

And five awesome women:

• Dahia al-Kahina - commander of resistance forces in northern Africa in the seventh century

• Samantha Bee - comedian

• Zora Neale Hurston - writer

• Barbara McClintock - scientist

• Nancy Pelosi - first woman Speaker of the US House of Representatives+

 A WOMAN’S FRIEND

Time is not a woman’s friend.
She cannot improve with age,
She can only get old.
Her body sags,
Her face wrinkles,
Her hair loses its luster.

Time is not a woman’s friend
Because she is expected to be young.
Ready to work,
Ready to play,
Ready to love,
Always ready for the gaze of men.

Time is not a woman’s friend.
Her greatest sin is growing old,
Growing tired.
No longer sexy and desirable,
She is no longer deemed of use
And should quietly fade away.

Time is not a woman’s friend.
An old woman is a figure to be mocked,
To be scorned,
To be ignored.
At least until her expertise
Can be of momentary use.

Time is not a woman’s friend.
She moves quickly through the years
And doesn’t notice their passage
Until she wakes up one day
To find out that Cinderella
Has become Eleanor Rigby.