To Susan B. Anthony

on her eightieth birthday

February 15, 1900

I

My honored friend, I’ll ne’er forget,

That day in June, when first we met:

Oh! would I had the skill to paint

My vision of that “Quaker Saint”:

Robed in pale blue and silver gray,

No silly fashions did she essay:

Her brow so smooth and fair,

‘Neath coils of soft brown hair:

Her voice was like the lark, so clear,

So rich, and pleasant to the ear:

The “‘Prentice hand,” on man oft tried,

Now made in her the Nation’s pride!

II

We met and loved, ne’er to part,

Hand clasped in hand, heart bound to heart.

We’ve traveled West, years together,

Day and night, in stormy weather:

Climbing the rugged Suffrage hill,

Bravely facing every ill:

Resting, speaking, everywhere;

Oft-times in the open air;

From sleighs, ox-carts, and coaches,

Besieged with bugs and roaches:

All for the emancipation 

Of the women of our Nation. 

III

Now, we’ve had enough of travel.

And, in turn, laid down the gavel,—

In triumph having reached four score,

We’ll give our thoughts to art, and lore.

In the time-honored retreat,

Side by side, we’ll take a seat,

To younger hands resign the reins,

With all the honors, and the gains.

United, down life’s hill we’ll glide,

What’er the coming years betide;

Parted only when first, in time,

Eternal joys are thine, or mine. 

(The law compels a married woman to take the nationality of her husband.)

I.

In Time of War

Help us. Your country needs you;

   Show that you love her,

Give her your men to fight,

   Ay, even to fall;

The fair, free land of your birth,

   Set nothing above her,

Not husband nor son,

   She must come first of all.

II.

In Time of Peace

What’s this? You’ve wed an alien,

   Yet you ask for legislation

To guard your nationality?

   We’re shocked at your demand.

A woman when she marries

   Takes her husband’s name and nation:

She should love her husband only.

   What’s a woman’s native land?

 

Let me make the songs for the people,
   Songs for the old and young;
Songs to stir like a battle-cry
   Wherever they are sung.

Not for the clashing of sabres,
   For carnage nor for strife;
But songs to thrill the hearts of men
   With more abundant life.

Let me make the songs for the weary,
   Amid life's fever and fret,
Till hearts shall relax their tension,
   And careworn brows forget.

Let me sing for little children,
   Before their footsteps stray,
Sweet anthems of love and duty,
   To float o'er life's highway.

I would sing for the poor and aged,
   When shadows dim their sight;
Of the bright and restful mansions,
   Where there shall be no night.

Our world, so worn and weary,
   Needs music, pure and strong,
To hush the jangle and discords
   Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.

Music to soothe all its sorrow,
   Till war and crime shall cease; 
And the hearts of men grown tender
   Girdle the world with peace.

They signed The Declaration of Sentiments

with nib of rib, the right to suffrage their daring

Called ugly then witch, pretty then weak

to be at once woman and voter, their daring

Hunger, headaches, heartaches, hatred, death

all this, and more, it cost them, their daring

As men are born, with God’s grace, so are women

they urged and argued with brains and daring

With firm convictions and hopes of fallen yokes

steadfast they marched nursing dreams of future daring

Sojourner, Dolores, their daughters left behind

now work against voter suppression with daring

There is more work on the horizon, more

yeast to knead into the bread of their daring

Persist Claudia! in mind and body be

not ugly, not pretty, but ablaze with daring.

           [Elvira H. D., 1924–2019]

You love a red lip. The dimples are

extra currency, though you take care to keep

powder from caking those charmed valleys.

Mascara: check. Blush? Oh, yes.

And a hat is never wrong

except evenings in the clubs: there

a deeper ruby and smoldering eye

will do the trick, with tiny embellishments—

a ribbon or jewel, perhaps a flower—

if one is feeling especially flirty or sad.

Until Rosie fired up her rivets, flaunting

was a male prerogative; now, you and your girls

have lacquered up and pinned on your tailfeathers,

fit to sally forth and trample each plopped heart

quivering at the tips of your patent-leather

Mary Janes. This is the only power you hold onto,

ripped from the dreams none of you believe

are worth the telling. Instead of mumbling,

why not decorate? Even in dim light

how you glister, sloe-eyed, your smile in flames.

            ^{After reading a letter from his mother, Harry T. Burn cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution}

My parents are from countries

where mangoes grow wild and bold

and eagles cry the sky in arcs and dips.

America loved this bird too and made

it clutch olives and arrows. Some think

if an eaglet falls, the mother will swoop

down to catch it. It won’t. The eagle must fly

on its own accord by first testing the air-slide

over each pinfeather. Even in a letter of wind,

a mother holds so much power. After the pipping

of the egg, after the branching—an eagle is on

its own. Must make the choice on its own

no matter what its been taught. Some forget

that pound for pound, eagle feathers are stronger

than an airplane wing. And even one letter, one

vote can make the difference for every bright thing.

Decades I have waited                to make sunlight 

for all of this to                             matter, a mark built to 

rest and a mark laid                     living. I am sworn 

to my worth even                         when the scales weep 

their own little swords,                slanting outside 

the song and full                          of soothing to speak each 

vowel. Everything                        happens toward its own 

making, an infinite                       becoming from all that 

is yet to be faced.                        When it seemed 

as though I had touched              the arm of love, 

little did I know,                            I had found a door 

with which to                                enter the sky. And to         

the sky, little did I                         know, the door would 

open for me. All,                          as it will be, as it should be, 

in effort of                                     The Great Balance. 

Five days ago, I stood                  under a flight of egrets, 

shifting between fenced               field of mud and factory 

yard. What could                          they have guessed of stability, 

a fairness of wings, restoring      what had always been 

theirs to have.                              Like them, I have 

steeped myself with                      others, for so long my roots 

sprouting from the cloud            of this fight, daring to follow 

where the arrow leads,                until it is my turn. 

Until now,                                     my turn.