Day 30
Almost there! Penultimate day. I know you have been patient, waiting for the month to get over so I will shut up. But I won’t shut up. Shutting up doesn’t get us anything, does it? So tonight’s poem is dedicated to all the suffragettes, suffragists, feminists, and allies who worked and fought and bled and died (yes, there were some who died), who suffered arrests and ruined their health for the purpose of achieving the rights we enjoy today. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, providing women with the vote in all 50 states, I pose a question that they posed, and that we should still be asking about all those remaining things, large and small, that women have yet to be permitted to achieve.
First, five women: (there are way too many to honor all here; I will devote tomorrow night to some of the non-white fighters for the cause of women)
Susan B. Anthony, suffragist
Carrie Catt Chapman, suffragist
Inez Milholland, suffragette who actually did die for the cause
Alice Paul, suffragette
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, suffragist
HOW LONG?
You tell me to be patient.
Things will come in time.
Nothing can be rushed,
And everything has its day.
And how long must I wait, mister?
Wait for what has been yours
Since birth?
How long must I sit and sigh,
Patient and fragile,
Waiting for almighty man
To give me what is mine by right?
You tell me to be sweet,
Polite and pleasant.
You tell me to smile
If I wish to persuade.
And how long must I smile, mister?
Smile to make your day brighter
While mine remains the same old
Shade of gray?
And if I am so sweet
How will you know
That I am so unhappy?
You tell me to be feminine,
Nurturing and caring.
Take care of us today, you say,
And we’ll take care of you soon.
And how long must I be caring, mister?
How many sandwiches are enough?
When will you allow me to determine
The laws that I must follow?
How long must I wait?
How long must I smile?
How long must I care?
You tell me to be patient,
Wait a little longer
Until you are done with
More important things.
Today is the day, mister.
I will not be sweet.
I will not smile.
I will not nurture.
If you will not allow me my rights,
I will seize them myself.
Make your own goddamn sandwich.