"kathrine" poems
On the backs of the women before us
Stands legacy and triumph,
Women like Anna Komnene
Who saved her father’s reputation, knew the classics,
And supervised hospitals,
Proving you can be royalty and brilliant,
Empress Wu,
The only known empress in early Chinese history,
Who challenged the norms for women liberation,
On the backs of the women before us,
Are the Roasies,
The strong women who joined industry and steel during World War 2,
Doing a man’s job,
Showing women have muscle,
A group known as the night witches
Women who bombed Nazi’s in the darkest hours,
Showing women can fight,
On the backs of the women before us,
Sacajawea,
Who at 16 trekked the mid-west with Lewis and Clark with a baby on her back,
Proving women can endure,
Kathrine Johnson,
Who proved to the world gender and color doesn’t matter,
Anyone can use mathematics for the growth of humanity,
Rosa Parks, who looked into the eyes of a white man,
And refused to give up her seat,
Proving that women can revolt,
Nellie Bly,
Who mothered investigative journalism,
Florence nightingale,
Who without her nursing wouldn’t have its roots,
On the backs of the women today,
Is Malala who at 15 was shot for standing up for a girl’s right for education,
Or Gretta Thunberg who at 17 is fighting for a greener earth,
On the backs of the women before us,
And on the backs of the women today,
Are women showing girls that tomorrow and the day after,
They can look into the eye of a man and say
Try me.. I’ll go far
Mar 25, 2020
Mar 25, 2020 at 3:20 PM UTC
"I've given it up."
"Given what up?
*** love, the works."
"What, like you're not going to try anymore?"
"Yeah, no more. I'm done, I've had it!"
"Wow, done. How long has it been?"
"Two weeks."
"And you feel better?"
"I feel like shit. Every day I think about it, all the time." "It's all I can think about!"
"Then why don't you try again?"
"No, I can't, I'm done, it's just another thing that handicaps me."
"Yeah, but it's great."
"Yeah, well I'm done. I'd rather be miserable than walk with a limp, no more."
"You'll be back one day. You'll break down."
"Yeah maybe…but for now, I'm done."
"What does Kathrine think about all this?"
"She doesn't know yet."
Jan 18, 2014
Jan 18, 2014 at 8:23 PM UTC
stupid songs make me fragile
I was heartbroken a few times
but I had to be tough cause momma
said boys don't cry
stupid people made me quit writing
I was heartbroken a few times
but I had to be tough cause pops
said my skin is thicker than leather
and I should have never let anything penetrate the surface
but what do you do when you meet someone who is a shape shifter
shifting everything into place as if it wasn't good enough before the storm
you realize you built a house without a gutter
where did all of the water go?
stupid weather makes me fragile
I was caught in the storm a few times
but pops said men don't need umbrellas
so my hoodies soaked
and my shoes are mushy
making that stupid high pitched sound
with each step
Stupid love songs make me fragile
They let me know I am not alone,
but they also let me know I am not special
Heartbreak
"It happens to everybody"
that's supposed to make me feel better?
I started writing again. Why did I stop?
Stupid people.
"Not everyone has the same heart as you."
the good people aren't as good as they say they are now
Who am I supposed to believe?
I don't want to turn into them, don't let this world make me that way
Jaded.
I'd rather be fragile, so easily taken away in the wind
Though the wind is not always gentle, storms pass by but my house still stands
Misunderstood but I understand now
those good people are good, not just pretending
those good people have let the world change them
Still there is heartbreak, there is stupid & jaded
But we need genuine, we need soft, we need fragile
Just to remind us "Not everyone has the same heart as you" so find the ones who do
Jan 23, 2015
Jan 23, 2015 at 1:22 PM UTC
On the way home, there are paths disguised as mountains
Arches of light to climb
Fragments of color, scattered bread crumbs, to lead the way
This is your journey home
Embrace Divine light, the pieces of your soul
Illuminated by the joyful tears of your guardian angels and ultralight beams, you are on the right path when you see me
Your journey home is not as hard as it may seem, the end isn't clear to you just as the gold's sheen comes second to your soul
the only illusion are the mountains in the distance whom are few and far apart
So with every milestone of your life, be sure to look into the skies and see which color of your next chapter shines
Mar 22, 2017
Mar 22, 2017 at 10:03 PM UTC
Number 261* ran a pretty good race.
Though she couldn’t have won it, she set a fine pace.
Her hat hid her hair but if you’d seen her face
You’d have realized she wasn’t a guy.
The year – ’67, a marathon run
In Boston, and soon after it’d begun
Officials decided her racing was done
And her gender the answer to “Why?”
For the course was for men; anyone called “her”
Had to skip it or hide who they really were.
K.V. Switzer she signed as, so they’d infer
That a male was the one to apply.
She resisted attempts to drag her away
And completed those miles, ignoring the fray.
Yet it took 5 more years, quite a lengthy delay,
‘Til the rule-makers had to comply.
Now at 70, Switzer, still true to form,
Ran in Boston, to welcomes both loud and warm.
Her gutsiness once took the world by storm
And her triumph no one can deny.
*Kathrine Switzer’s Boston Marathon number
in both the 1967 and 2017 races
Apr 25, 2017
Apr 25, 2017 at 4:46 PM UTC