Lovely tribute to RBG
She is a former classmate. Julie wrote this extraordinary piece of imperatives!
Load up the bench with woman,
Load it up
load it up
load it up!
Load up the House with woman,
the big, white house,
fill it up.
Not just cleaning the bench,
or dusting the house
or alone in the kitchen in the late hours
Fill up the house, every room, every closet, every stair
Fill up the house,
We're more than half way there,
we're more than half of us all.
So, lets fill it up.
In the office
at the desk
on the phone
in the air , on the air , the teleprompter
Everywhere.
Fill up the house.
Fill up the lawn, the limos, the planes,
Fill 'em all up with woman.
We bought it
We fought for it
We birthed it , we buried it
We cleaned it, we wept it, we swept it.
We reared it, we raised it,
We fed it from our mouths,
So,
LETS FILL UP THE HOUSE.
We bled for it, and froze it and "Did it all".
All hours, all days, all years, since the beginning of time.
So lets take it
and load it up.
Load it up with compassion,keep it the home of the brave,
Be bold
and fill it up.
Open the door to Susan B., say hello to Gloria from me,
give a warm embrace to Eleanor,and Fannie, and Ida, and Bella
and finally give Rosa her seat.
Open the books,and read them all, Alice Walker, Angela Davis, and Alice Paul.
Throw open the windows and let us all breathe, Simone
Millicent,Abby and Sally
Bell and Betty
Mahala, Rupi, Gwendolyn
breathe in,
and let Soujourner keep us True.
Sew it up like Betsy did,
and clean it up like a shirt,
When the stains and the blood and the lipstick on the collar are so carefully removed, and buttons sewn back on, and starched and ironed like new
Fresh, like a Spring day, not centuries of rot
or greed
or lies
or rants of hate and venom.
Put the shirt on
but call it a "blouse"
change the buttons to the other side,
CHANGE ALL THE BUTTONS TO THE OTHER SIDE.
Take the boots off our necks, and change them to slippers.
Fine, soft slippers that could move silently through the house, and never wake the baby.
Slippers like moccassins
walking through the woods, not breaking sticks, or making smoke,
or oil,
or spills ,
or unnecessary kills.
The woman don't need unnecessary kills .
We have been unnecessary kills , in our feathers and moccasins and braids.
Take off the warpaint,
Use it for murals.
Paint all the walls in the house.
Paint,
Paint Millicent,and Harriet, and Pearl, and Betty,
and Betty again ,
and for now,
leave out the men.
Let them play in the yard, take a time out,
let them play football or bicker or box.
While the woman inside are watching the clocks.
Let them see who is richest, or who has the most bitches, let them take a time out in the yard, while we iron out glitches.
Because the house,
the house is for women.
A womans' place is in the house,
AND THIS WORLD IS THE HOUSE.
And we are the keepers , and sweepers, and soothers, and keeners,
The bees,
who have our own Queens.
So set up the
chairs,
fill up the house with R.B.G.
And keep making room, and keep making laws, and cleaning up messes that only we can.
Wipe the noses, prune the roses,
Clean up
the bangs and the scrapes
and the rapes.
Call Clara for the soldiers dying in the field
and Madame Currie to try to help us heal.
Keep the homes fires burning, and love returning, and the butter churning, and our children learning.
Load up the courts , load up the banks,load up the labs ,
Load up the ranks.
And yes load up the house with Hillary,
and even Martha who got locked up. Load up the house with woman,
who fell down and got back up.
Open the door and the heart and the hearth , let us in .
Let us do our good works , let THE WOMAN
begin
to take it back,
make it back, bring it all back alive,
and well and joyful again, so,
Load up the house.
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