[p o e t r y]

Women Before Me

I was reading
My sociology textbook today
And the pages bleed pink

The pages beneath my fingertips
Run with pink rivers
Of anger
Anger at the injustice
Of the past,
Injustice upon women

And as I read
It dawned on me
It's not that
I don't want to be a stay at home
Wife or mother
And it's not that I don't love
The idea of running my own
Business and household
From my home

I don't have to be working

I think I just want
To work so passionately
Because others before me
Could not

I want to take the opportunity
To "be more than a woman"
Because others before me
Did not have the opportunity
To be more than a keeper of the home

But as I think about it now
How beautiful is it
To be a woman
And to do nothing more than run a household
To manage a home
A family
A business

There is no pursuit for woman
That is better than the other
To be a working woman
Or to be a keeper of the home
Neither is better
I simply desire one more than the other
Because I want to
Take the chance
That women before me
  Never got to take

(01.26.21)