Be Just Woman

Decades ago when I started my personal foray into women’s studies, the field was still quite new. A feminist at heart, I was raised by a mother who also felt the tug of women’s rights strongly, as she came of age in the time of the early women’s rights movement in America. It is fear that causes men to still thwart women’s rights. It is fear that keeps some women from speaking up and claiming their own. Yet, we women are strong, powerful, “brilliant beings,” and many still long for the rights of simply be themselves.

Be Just Woman

In the brilliance

Of my madness,

Only then can I see

The sadness,

That walks,

And talks

In a million

Brilliant beings.

I see it on the corner,

In every face

Of every woman,

In the shops,

On the bus,

Every one,

They are all us.

We have long to speak

Our voice,

To tell our feelings,

Be just women.

We have long to walk

Our walk,

To talk

Our talk,

Be just women.

We are mothers

To our children,

Fierce and docile

Both by nature.

We are friends

To our sisters,

And lovers,

To our men.

We are feminists,

Who want to be

Feminine,

Honored and revered,

But instead

In our passing,

We are often not loved,

Only feared.

© Pamela Leavey

Temple of the Five by Lisa Marquis Bradbury ©