Paper Wings

I wonder if when the founding fathers of a

nation of forgotten mothers

wrote that line with a dipped quill pen,

they pondered the constrictive nature of the

three-letter-word “Men.”

“Men,” only half of “women,” yet

in our history’s fraying tapestry, when

patriarchy was taught in homes and digested by

society, the “w-o” was shoved

to fit, invisible and silent, beside their letters.

Our letters, drowned in black ink to

create space for their pompous calligraphy.

Today it seems as though history has held

its stubborn ground.

Yes, All Men are created equal.

They sit on their tired iron thrones, equal in

height, and justify age-old papers that forgot

to grant women their inherent rights.

The bloodied scraps of freedom we have, torn

and stitched by sisters who endured the

worst and bared their teeth, so easily stripped

away by Men who have never known what it is

to truly seethe; to have “Justices” control

their bodies; to be voiceless; to not be believed.

No, not all women are created equal,

that much is clear. Though we are equal in our

anger, and a new document we will steer.

We will not form it in hope of revenge

for all the suited, bigoted men,

but rather in the hope that when we scrawl

“equal” with our glitter gel pens, it will

mean it this time.

And when we sign it,

Women everywhere,

the “W” and “o” will be their own letters.

-A.J