Sufferage<\/b><\/p>\n
For <\/span><\/i>Cecilia Streett Waters, Mary D. Randolph, me, you, your mama, and your cousins too<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waiting for States to ratify any decision that would<\/span><\/p>\n even the playing field<\/span><\/p>\n Is like waiting for a snapping turtle to let go of its dinner.<\/span><\/p>\n There is too much money to be made in apartheid, segregation, isms, and inequity.<\/span><\/p>\n Corruption is profitable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n People in power will kill before letting it go.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n People who have never needed a\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n separate Amendment to be included in the Constitution<\/span><\/p>\n always hoard rights when others\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n begin to move about the country as freely as they do.<\/span><\/p>\n They argue that we who are beneath the boot stop wriggling<\/span><\/p>\n Stop biting at the ankles<\/span><\/p>\n Stop begging for breath.<\/span><\/p>\n They assume lesser evil of inaction is eventual action, but<\/span><\/p>\n both options are two roads that diverge in a yellow wood – both worn really about the same.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And we writhe beneath the weight of waiting.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In this swath of stolen land, we fight for the right to exist as entire humans.<\/span><\/p>\n 100 years ago, we had to fight\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n again\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n to protect the right to decide who leads us.<\/span><\/p>\n Today we fight\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n again\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n for our very bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Women have always fought in wars defending their tribes and themselves. The tapestry of American womanhood is garrisoned by women ancestors who took what was due them. By usurpers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We summon the energies of all of the women who inhabit the women of the USA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Colestah<\/span><\/p>\n Harriet Tubman<\/span><\/p>\n Deborah<\/span><\/p>\n Lozen<\/span><\/p>\n Tomoe Gozen<\/span><\/p>\n We call them up from the soil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jael<\/span><\/p>\n Judith<\/span><\/p>\n Yennenga<\/span><\/p>\n Buffalo Calf Road Woman<\/span><\/p>\n Boudicca<\/span><\/p>\n We call them out of the waters.<\/span><\/p>\n Queen Summuratmat<\/span><\/p>\n Queen Vishpala<\/span><\/p>\n Artemisia<\/span><\/p>\n Nafanua<\/span><\/p>\n William Brown<\/span><\/p>\n We call them down from the sky.<\/span><\/p>\n Pine Leaf<\/span><\/p>\n Queen Nzinga<\/span><\/p>\n Queen Gudit<\/span><\/p>\n The Amazons<\/span><\/p>\n The Agoji<\/span><\/p>\n Help us avenge us for the sake of our daughters and our daughters\u2019 daughters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sufferage For Cecilia Streett Waters, Mary D. Randolph, me, you, your mama, and your cousins too Waiting for States to ratify any decision that would even the playing field Is like waiting for a snapping turtle to let go of its dinner. There is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4411,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110449,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110417\/revisions\/110449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}