These Women

A poem by WITA Secretary Jennifer Gammage.

—

These women that dare believe in me,

They build me with hands worn from work,

And veins that make maps to hearts stronger than mine.

They raise me up from self-imposed swamps when I lapse into self-pity,

And they breathe into my mouth the breath of history’s sacrifice.

These women, my friends and ancestors,

They make me, and re-make me.

Against all odds, they remind me to keep walking uphill.

They have woven the threads of nations with revolution,

And they believe me into being.