She calls from a rickety card table filled with
Buttons or clothespins, collects contributions for
Homemade brownies and potato salad but ample
Hands and a worn apron can fan into many
A woman’s voice, the beginnings of talk.
Forget the supposed safety found behind gates;
Over fences, a load of wet t-shirts can be
Pinned up into light-filled banners, snapped
Sharp against the backyards of poverty, abuse,
Despair and in the face of disbelief, bodies
Are able to form a hard line, wrists laced,
Knuckle to bone, can stop traffic, use paper plus
Pencils to create slogans, write letters, rewrite
History and pen legislation, brew up strong,
Hot coffee to fuel campaigns, conferences,
Take part in debates, and lo and behold,
Elections, convert one-time ballrooms into
Circles of healing where even a wounded
Girl can learn to engage in a war dance,
Please pass the petitions, don shoes for
Marching, time to glory in our colors spread
Across concrete streets, over statehouse lawns,
Past time to demand that any great and would-be
Gods acknowledge all we made-from-scratch
Goddesses as homes and gardens full of hope
Spring up across a nation, invade an almighty
Constitution, shoot tendrils out and watch
Ideas take root in earth as she, herself, calls all to
Hold up the whole of bright sky and proceed while
Chanting, chant we will, we each can and
We will have equal rights one fine day.