Gossamer Freedoms
Most of my poetry writing has taken the form of song lyrics. But I just found this poem that seems even more relevant now than when I wrote it a while back, so I decided to post it.
Gossamer Freedoms
Women’s rights are human rights;
human rights are women’s rights,
not always so,
may not be so for long,
still not completely so anywhere,
still not so everywhere,
Fragile freedoms, won
through years of suffering
in sit-ins and fasts and prisons,
through years of rising up in rallies and marches,
refusing to give up or give in.
Fragile freedoms won,
freedom to vote and freedom to learn,
freedom to teach and freedom to preach,
freedom to choose and freedom to dare
to be more than they said we could be.
Fragile freedoms,
floating now on gossamer wings,
hanging in the balance,
holding on
for life.
This is beautiful!
So beautiful.
Thank you, Florence and Jo, for reading and for your kind words!
Thank you, Jann, for reminding us visually and through your words of the fragile nature of our freedom to make decisions about our own bodies and lives.
Thank you, Anne, for your comment. Yes, our freedoms are fragile. Thank you for working for these freedoms for decades! We will persist!