Song to Suffragettes

 

I

I wrote a song to suffragettes,
honour a debt,  pay my respects.
Everywhere mocked for their wish for equality
they risked their status, security, prosperity.

Picket lines, marches, militant agitation
met prison, force-feeding, brute confrontation.
It won my adoration, this brave new vision,
this new kind of freedom, personal moral decision.

II

I did not see that they were white.
I only saw that they were right.
Till I saw long voting queues,
black men and women, their abuse.

Rules, rapes, lynching, beating,
instilled fear, obstructed voting.
Victorious white suffragettes
saw no more cause for protests.

Past protests were shocking in their hate
Black savage vote before us!  and a shameful bait.
‘Women’s vote will give you a base
to keep your nigger in his place.

Uncultured mammies, without education,
aspire to our cause, forgetting their station.
Let us admit them, they make such a fuss,
to back-of-the-march, from back-of-the-bus.’

My inspiration, suffragettes,
white dresses, sashes, and rosettes!
Why, oh why, did you forget
that black women were owed a debt?

Why do I feel that I betray
my idols, show their feet of clay?
An icon deep inside me rips,
my song freezes on dry lips.

September 2020