In the years since this sonnet was first penned, the poet has been encouraged to see a new generation of young women with the courage to show up looking and acting more like themselves.

*****

Recorded Reading (0:56): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/42jb2d5cwst5893mlwwih/To-the-Young-Women.mp3?rlkey=d4ty2uvmycgagcfsthq32ekkv&dl=0

*****

To the Young Women

Do I have trouble recognizing you?
Then, be anywise individual! —
Of all manifestations we may view,
Our culture ever chooses the most dull.

The fuss that’s made around whether or not
To put on and to wear abroad a hat
Is worth at least a famine or a war
— We really waste our energy on that?

Where are the turbans, scarves and spark’ling nets?
Not one tiara, not one gauzy veil?
Cannot one from another of you tell —
There’s not enough diff’rence available!

Carefully mismatched clothes, identical
Cosmetics, chipmunk voices — that is all.

*****

This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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