FAMILY: WOMEN’S WORK

Bluebirds windchiming in the Jeffrey pines
Make background music as I hook up
From beneath the burlap white and yellow
Petals of lotus flowers. Conifers
Spread green fingers in the sun.

In Egypt, land of lotus and papyrus,
Nomadic women day to day
Weave goatskin pads they stitch
Into tent sidings, one forever
Needing replacement. But Hetup-heres,
Daughter, wife, and mother of pharoahs,

Rested slender fingers on graceful
Arms of carved and gilded chairs:
Borne above the dust by slaves
And Hatshepsut grasped the crook and flail,
Herself donning the pharoah’s beard.

In 1986 Before Christ,
A scribe advised his son, “Do not
Become a weaver. They sit all day
In the house at their looms unhappy as women.”
My daughters the engineer, the supervisor and
The shop owner are making their choices.