For Jane, Sadie, Nettie, Rosie, and Bridgie;
for Greta, Agnes, Anna, Betty, Bridget, Mary, & Marie,
for Liz, and, always, for Mary Jane.
With love and gratitude.
All the women who have a piece in me are gone.
Bones
and teeth,
Ash
and dust,
Scattered
remains.
They bequeathed their
strength,
And I rise on their
bent backs.
Mind set on their course,
Mindful that I will never know
their
poverty
their
pain
their
oppression
their
opportunity denied.
My fingers never broken
by sweatshop machines.
My heart never bound
by conventions and prejudice.
My mind never
confined by misogyny.
Shaped by strength,
they stomped the Earth.
Titans
(I imagine the worlds they
would run
With just a tiny piece of my
privilege.)
All the women who
have a piece in me are gone.
Bones and
teeth,
Ash and
dust,
Scattered
remains.
They shove me
forward and scream my name.
Rest in peace, my beloved
Titans.
I remember your
names.
I remember your
pain.
I will never
forget.
I remain,
filled with the pieces of you,
until I am legacy, too.
--Sheila Sweeny Higginson
