Poetry Celebrating Women’s History Month

Women of Granite … 2000

Like ancient stones
We have directed
Destiny’s course.

Silently stoically
Standing firmly
We have founded and formed

Every executive
Each executioner
Every Senator
Each cellmate

All owe their identity
To our wombs…

As we enter
This rapid movement
With scars of silence
We carry grace and wisdom
Into the echoing corridors
And hurl the earth’s core
At the glass ceilings

Our ungrateful fetuses foolishly formed.

– Lisa Albright Ratnavira

Daughters of Clay … 2008

Like unpolished pebbles
We are tumbled
Along the fates of men

We play with dolls
we bake and cut cookie dough
we are praised for our dresses

Every father’s knee
Every Pastor’s benediction
Every teacher’s gold star
Every playmate’s secret

Our identity is formed before
our ripened wombs release us

we repeat
we regurgitate
with silent assent
we carry our young
into the empty rivers
biting our tongues
we offer them
Promises of change

Our forebears foolishly fought for

– Lisa Albright Ratnavira

About the author:

Lisa Albright Ratnavira’s work has appeared in a variety of literary journals, including Poet, Bereavement, Lucidity and Limestone Circle. She has published two chapbooks: Maiden, Mother and Crone, with Rachel Harding and Kate Harding, and Traveling with Pen and Brush. Lisa directs the Hidden Forest Art Gallery in Fallbrook, California, with her husband, Gamini, a renowned wildlife artist, and their children. Their work appears on www.gaminiratnavira.com. Lisa can be reached at lratnavira@yahoo.com.

(Photo by Gamini Ratnavira, Sri Lanka 2009)