HEROINES
Exceptional
marginalized even drag your long skirts
by Your intelligence nineteenth century
burns beyond
death not as the port's lighthouse
but as a fire of driftwood on the beach
forgive your ignorance is death by pneumonia
teeth fall alone
cloudy eyes of the seamstress
fatigue
mill girl by a series of circumstances
soon be known as class privileges
The law states that nothing you own
in a world where the property is everything First
belong to your father who then chooses you
if you can not marry you run out of resources
Unable to win a wage worker You are prohibited from voting
forbidden to speak publicly
if you're legally dead
houses the law says you can not bequeath property
except your kids or your husband's male relatives
has the rights of the slave
to acorralarte and
possess escape again if
may inherit slaves but not the power to free
Your complexion is clear you have been taught that light was
the Black Continent
with white power
that Indians living in
dirt and barbaric rituals mysterious
corset
Your mother used to quell his spirit
and if you reject
mock
reject you've heard many sermons have been
and your own interpretations
locked in your heart You're a strong woman health
by a series of circumstances
soon to be known as class privilege
you lose instantly
if you break the social mold
When you speak in public
throw human excrement are exceptional
privately indignant
stop believing in the protection of Scripture
the laws of man
respectable and all
you an outcast
burns Your mind not as a lighthouse in the port but as
home fire more violent
start
opinion and a great burst of freedom in your words flowing
yet still speak the language of limited vision frustrated
Drag your long skirts
marginalized by the nineteenth century pointed
eliminate injustice without getting
How
I can stop loving your clarity and your rage?
How I can give my respect and hold in my
yours
courage to honor your legacy exactly as it is
also recognize that not enough?
ADRIENNE RICH. POETRY ANTHOLOGY.
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