Chicago Writers Collective

The Power of Women

From the daughters of Eve
to mother of the eleventh hour
In boardrooms and brothels, backrooms
and bathrooms changing brown babies
with sparkling eyes

It has been the strength to pull
sons and fathers husbands and brothers
from sad and weighted trees, held together
pieces of jigsaw men shattered by hammers
of prejudice and reality

Has given birth to prophets and kings
raised boys and soldiers, watched them die
like fireflies in the night, snuffed out in
skirmishes and wars around the corner
around the world

A mathematical remainder
in the face of adversity and tribulations
Suffrage and shackles, chains and field songs
Auctions and the empty music of memories and
sisters who danced alone to the tune of draft notices
and telegrams filled with death

Was present
when Rosa sat and Sojourner spoke
when Winnie walked miles in shoes thought too big
when Harriet treaded trails to freedom by moonlight
when Gwendolyn touched the souls of dormant poets
when Shirley Chisholm said “I want to be President!”

Undiluted
from genesis to the grave
Sister love made Jesus weep
lifted Lazarus’ heart from lime and dust
Held fast the faith of Mary running from
an empty sepulcher

It resonates
in the heavily melanated and vanilla skinned
among ghetto goddesses and gold-coast divas
from the bourgeois to blue collar free-at-last
the permed and loc’d, straightened and curled
in Ships and Travelers, beauty shops and salons
within the individual and the many
It is a mind-state and a way of life