Women gathered.
Knowledge. Nappies.
They learned
Their places
Beside bedsides,
Machines, and graves.
Women’s wealth
Wasn’t worth
Ticking cloth.
They backed
Husbands and fathers.
In the war.
Some men returned
Bandaged or broken,
Whole, or not at all.
But when men
Come home, the
Women have to.
Riveting biceps
Industrial muscles
To lift laundry,
Bolted to stoves
As sure as sheet
Metal to planes.
The same nylons,
Sewn to save lives
Men parachute
Alive, lifted aloft
Gartered the girls
On the ground.
Before the men
Came home,
The women ran,
Barren or barefoot,
Lithe or lame,
But hunter-free.
I love the imagery. I feel the oppression. Yet I must ask- Is the gatherer complete without the hunter or do both of their diets and worlds suffer?
Every thinking moment is centered on just making it home, then it will all be over. All our hopes are pinned to that moment. But three weeks later, after the frenzied kisses and relief, a new kind of work begins, negotiating the differences. I wanted to explore that. The movies end at the kiss.
Yes, diets, individuals, couples and cultures all suffer imbalance. And some women are hunters, too.
Women being bound to the home has been convenient to power structures for centuries. Widows have had more freedom than married women, and at a terrible cost. So too, is there a cost on the other sides.
Imagine the women who welded planes together, and then we’re sent home, in isolation, to wash diapers again. I’m not judging sacrifice or difficulty, just suggesting there are a lot of moments we don’t think about. They don’t make for good film, pictures or narratives.