Sunday 9 June 2019

Fifty Percent




VIII.

Tell me about the skilled women
who dye the cloth and spin the yarn,
who raise the invoice and basins,
who love and break and mend and darn

and yet they tread so light footed,
their prints are easy to wipe off;
the jingle of their anklets fades -
it rings just once and then it stops

and when the book’s opened again
there is no trace left on the page -
the work they did, the yarns they spun
are rubbed out of the percentage.

Speak of the quiet fifty percent
who’re rubbed out, the erased segment.




Last week, I posted a sonnet from a series I am working on - Ninety Nine Percent, and Elephant's Child commented - 'And teach me about women, whose work is both imperative for our survival and so often ignored.' Which was super uncanny because....!! well, great minds and all that... :) 

So I thought I'd put it up. 







15 comments:

  1. Huge thanks.
    Tell me about these women indeed. Whose steps on the world are light, and whose marks on our hearts indelible.

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    1. My pleasure entirely. It was so uncanny to have written it and then come here and read your comment!

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  2. Hari OM
    I'm glad EC asked and so glad you responded! YAM xx

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  3. True words and a beautiful picture.

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    1. Sad that the world is so ready to forget women's work, apart from paying them less and treating them so dismissively during their lifetimes.

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  4. Excellent that two great minds have thought alike. Women's absence from history (his...story) is marked. I'm glad some writings are addressing this. You've done beautifully here...Thanks Nila...as always.

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    1. Yeah, there's a lot to catch up on. Thanks for reading!

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  5. If not for their efforts, none of us would be here. They keep the homefront running and keep the population going.

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    1. True! But till very recently all the world did was to pay lip service to that...

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    2. We (the women) give the boy/man their life ... let alone the rest ...

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  6. perfect timing. The fifty percent persevere and are making more and more noise. Is it ever enough? We can only try. Your poem and pic say something, and now it's in the cloud...drifting along to touch souls.

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    1. Ya, the making of noise is crucial! It will reach critical mass someday. I like the idea of drifting along in the cloud - evocative!

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  7. Hi Nila - thanks for posting your 50% - having also just asked for it - not realising I'd find it! I'm behind ... to put it mildly. That 50% keeps the wheels of life turning ... for 9 months we hold the next generation ... and I'm quite certain do so much more in this his- story world. But at least some of us are able to recognise what's going on and write about the women of the world, through history too ... cheers Hilary
    PS Joanne says it well ... love that thought ...

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    1. No issues Hilary. I hope everything is going well for you. I'm behind with a lot of things myself - exam season and summer always a major juggle here at this end :) Yes, women's work is underpaid and ignored and given less importance in this current world we inhabit now - but hopefully that will change too. If we look back a few decades, women have come a long way...but there's a long way to go still...thanks for coming around, always great to read your views, here and over at yours.

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