III More Poems for “Many Votes, Many Voices”

Breathless, Inez Still Speaks

~Before medical researchers found a cure, pernicious anemia was a universally fatal disease that caused overwhelming fatigue and breathlessness with even the slightest movement.
-Dr. David Lipschitz

Look me up
on any search engine.You’ll find me there—face unlined, eyes
facing the light, dancing
the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear, buying Parisian gowns in Paris, loving whomever
I chose, standing on a soap box—rare flapper woman with a hard-won law degree and a hunger for justice
that was never satisfied.

Look at me now in the shroud
of this place where I lie—my tresses, my bones, my star turned to stone, no longer
fatigued or fighting to breathe,
still pale though I perceive
glints of Paris blue, purple-
plum, bruised gold the artist
kindly sprinkled on my hair,
my face, my breast as if to say,“Her radiance will not be dimmed.”

I like that.

Alive I feared to stop
lest I leave my work undone dash the hopes of women standing on my shoulders reaching for the ballot box held so long so far abovetheir grasp. I didn’t knowin death I’d still bear
my banner, even into this
so different world:

“Forward, out of error.

Sylvia Ramos Cruz

Leave behind the night

Forward through the darkness

Forward into light!”

And, my suffrage sisters,

that is where we must go

for there is much work

to be done to see that those

we left behind—asked to go

to the back of the parade

or didn’t ask at all—get to

the place where All are

equal, the (real or virtual)

Until we do,

voting booth.

we will not win.

Inez Milholland Rides On by Sylvia Ramos Cruz

~According to legend, Lady Godiva rode naked through town so her husband would repeal crippling taxes on the populace. Though forbidden to look, one person peeped and was blinded.

Inez Milholland Rides On

~According to legend, Lady Godiva rode naked through town so her husband would repeal crippling taxes on the populace. Though forbidden to look, one person peeped and was blinded.  

Inez caused a sensation 

like Lady Godiva, but not 

Both rode horses through town for Justice— 

Lady to keep townsfolk from starving
under the weight of her husband’s taxes, 

Inez to wrestle women’s voices away 

from their fathers, brothers, husbands 

Both wore finery— 

Lady modestly clad 

in cascading tresses 

Inez (the “most beautiful woman 

ever to bite a policeman’s wrist”)

resplendent in white flowing

emblem of 20thcentury

New Woman

Lady unseen in Middle Ages mist,

except for one struck blind for blasphemy

Inez ogled by thousands- men, women

children come to see the little ladies

ask once more for the right to have

their say counted

Lady won the day, citizens rejoiced

skinny children managed slant smiles,

raised feeble hands to clap

Inez rode Gray Dawn on

proud back unbent, voice ringing

east to west, collapsed asking

“Mr. President, how long 

must women wait for liberty?”

died before she saw the light

f a new day for woman’s right

Lady rides on immortalized

in gourmet Belgian chocolates

delighting smiley rowdy children

and overburdened parents

Pale Inez rides on mindful 

Our struggle is not yet done,

Her message clear,

I died so you could live

A life of your own choosing.

Do not let my death be for naught.

Vote. Vote. Vote.

Votes for Women by Sandra Yannone

In honor of the 100th anniversary

after “Inez Milholland Leads Women’s Suffrage March”by Gayle Elaine Scott

To think of them all as commemorated in glass, hat brims galore, banners unfurled across their chests, signs tattooed to wagon sides, Inez Milholland in glorious, broken glass leading the way atop her opalescent horse. They dream, these women of the sashes.

They dream with their open throats in song, even though bound
in corsets, the knuckle-white cords pulled taut enough to bind

their bountiful bodices. They march, these full-bodied women
covered in cotton or muslin
like water rising in chokeholds around their necks. They march

in rain with hats as wide as open umbrellas. They march through mud between paved cities, through farm towns with only the hope of train stops.
They march with blistered feet, march
to gather volumes of voices
as they march toward their attainable dream, as they join hand
after ungloved hand just outsideof Inez’s considerable wingspan.

Many Votes, Many Voices by Bonnie Rucobo

19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The right of citizens of the U.S. to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the U.S. or by any state on account of sex.

Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Ratified August 18, 1920 Ratification certified August 26, 1920

Tiny fragments of stone
in the cool palette of
green, blue, and violet fuse
to reveal a cluster of female forms.
The triumvirate is clad in cloche hats,
the iconic headgear of the age of jazz. Disguising bobbed hair, the narrow brims hide the eyes of the two women in profile. The third stares head-on

through a single eye slit,
the other eye concealed by the helmet that is her hat.

An outsized brooch on the woman’s lapel reads, “VOTE,” in capital letters.Has the trio come directly from apolling place in the mosaic’s midgroundwhere they have cast their inaugural ballots? The three wear the same self-satisfied smile. After more than seventy years of marches, political intrigue, arrests, and hunger strikes they have exercised their right to vote.

From the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls to the passage of the final vote for the Constitutional Amendmentguaranteeing women’s suffrage

by Harry Burns of Tennessee,

each of the three represents a generation of American women who lived and died while passing the torch for suffrage.

Three Times of Women by Holly Wilson

Three sophisticated, intelligent women One looks back to the past
Women are second-place citizens,They can’t own land or vote, Husbands allowed to kill them

If caught with another man,
Their role is barefoot and pregnant,They are the “weaker sex”,Their opinion doesn’t count,
Most men won’t let their women work,For others the choices are
Teacher, nurse, and secretary

Another looks straight out at us in the present Some things have improved
Women have the vote,
In fact, they are crucial for winning an election, They own their own property

And have more say about their life decisions, Women are seen in many more roles
In business, politics, medicine, and science

But women are still responsible for
Most of the childcare and housekeeping, While most of them also work,
Some husbands still beat them
To keep them down
And claim it is their right,
Some are trafficked
To the highest bidder,
When women are raped,
They are still often blamed or not believed, Rape is still used as a weapon of war

The third looks towards the future
Thinking about what she hopes to see
Men and women working together as equals To make this a better world for all,
The differences between them seen
As assets, not conflicts

The injustices of the past Inspired women to fight

To get us to the present, The injustices of today,

Are inspiring them now To get us to the future