My cage gapes wide open at the door
Never have I ventured outside my confinement before
What strange sentiments churn at my core
My heart palpitates for more-
Than the existence to which I have been subjugated
At the hands of man and constantly berated-
For daring to have my own thoughts and feelings
But no more at his knees will I be kneeling
For dawn has awoken in me a ferocious fight
To join my fellow species in our plight-
For emancipation.
Now in military precision we hasten
Through the saturated street
Trampling the aura of feminine domesticity at our feet
And galvanizing our willowy frames for the inevitable battle
To obliterate a husband’s prerogative to regard his wife as cattle,
Armed with white banners adorned with scarlet scripts
We remain defiant against the chapping of our lips
As the cold clings to our clothes and the wind whips our hair
The warmth we absorb from one another subdues our despair
Together – constitutionalists and militants – we campaign
Our voices, like Nightingales, sweetly sing our refrain:
“VOTES FOR WOMEN”