Echo in my Mind
Janet Kuypers
4/20/17
The thoughts of these women,
the visions of these women,
the legacies of these women,
they echo in my mind.
—
I think of the woman
who in her youth
led armies to battle
and saved her country.
And for this she was
burned at the stake
because she was a woman,
and she had beliefs.
—
I think of the woman
who wore a black dress
at the bride
to her wedding —
and no, it’s not
because she’s goth like me,
but because she had
work to do,
and she didn’t want
to get her white
wedding dress dirty.
And yeah, she had
work to do —
she was discovering things
scientists take for granted now,
She was discovering things
no man had yet
to wrap his head around.
—
I think of the woman
who lived in a time
where she wasn’t allowed
a higher education,
so she studied for free,
and she worked for free,
made amazing scientific discoveries
until she escaped Germany
days before Adolf Hitler
would have put her
in a concentration camp.
She carried a friend’s
diamond ring
while trying to escape,
in case she needed to
bribe someone
to allow her to pass.
And her drive, her work,
gave the world Nobel-prize
winning collaborations —
despite the efforts
of the Third Reich,
and despite a patriarchy,
all her life,
that thought,
she’s just a woman.
She doesn’t need to learn.
—
I think of the woman
who was in the first wave
of women allowed to have
higher education,
but still, she left
her communist home,
searching for freedom.
She started a life
on the other side of the earth,
because after what she learned,
she knew that
understanding philosophy
could really set her free.
—
I think of the woman
born not far from my home.
She studied music,
but wanted to share her story
of life as a woman
with the rest of the world.
And through her journeys
she stayed with a tribe
when prisoners,
armed with lawn mower blades,
broke out of their jail cell
while all she do was wonder,
wait, and listen
out into the jungle.
During her travels
she took mail planes
until she was dropped off
as far as she could
before completing
her solitary journey
to the North Pole.
As an Artist in Residence
for NASA,
she learned how men,
during the cold war,
thought of
setting off nuclear bombs
on the dark side of the moon.
Of course,
only a man
would think of doing that.
Once she was in a protest
about the economic
exploitation of women
and the treatment
of women as animals,
giving flyers of images
of chicks, bunnies,
foxes and pussy cats.
And she’s even said that
“for every dollar
a man makes,
a woman makes 63¢.
Now, 50 years ago
that was 62¢ —
so, with that kind of luck
it will be the year
3,888 before we make
a buck.”
—
And I think about
what these women say,
and I think about
what these women mean,
and like they say,
“I could just go on
and on and on...
But tonight —
I’ve got a headache.”
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