93. Suffrage and Feminism

Women wanted rights too.
They were tired of being the angel in the house.
They wanted something more.
They too cried black ink into their pages.
They cried in the streets
For freedom
“How much more abuse can we take?”
“We work the mills.”
“We get paid pittance for our labor.”
“We teach our children the ways of the world.”
“Men should see us as equals.”
“We should be allowed to have a say in our lives,”
“In our cities,”
“In our states,”
“In our nations,”
“We were fighting with you”
“When the revolution burned”
“Where is our voice?”
The waterfall conventions in America
And disillusioned disenfranchised meetings in Europe
Brought signs on sidewalks
As they called out in the streets
For equality
Hoping they could be heard by the men
Over their brutish machines.
The men didn’t listen.
Their machines and money made the louder noise.
Nations had priorities.
None included the better half.

34. India

Between the mountains and the sea,

A large ruby grew out of the Indus River Valley.

Precious material

Flowed in flooding waters

Down mountains

Collecting in the mud and muck of monsoonal runoff.

Their lives were better

Despite the turmoil of the floods.

Their gods smiled down on them

They grew in their radiance.

Bigger than Egypt and Sumer

It fed on merchants and agriculture.

Thriving to build cities

For a thousand years.

Slowly, their gods became stronger

Taking root in the fertile Indus River mud.

They were fed by visionaries

Chanting through Vedic mantras and stories

Ganesh, Indira and all the others.

Then, when the civilization was too weak to go on,

Invaders came from the North.

To change the old order

The gods matured

Through war and bloodshed.

Chiefdom was traded for Oligarchies and hierarchy.

The caste was born.