Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.
Speak Up
*Content Warning*
This poem reflects on themes that may be distressing to some readers
Speak Up
Written by Kelly Ann Wilson
Speak up
A young girl with the biggest dreams
Needs just one person to believe
So she will grow up knowing
She is capable of anything
And she could be the first woman
On the moon
So, chase your wildest dreams so loudly
Speak up
Your sisters in a country
Somewhere that seems half a world away
Weren't safe to sit down at their desks
They risked their lives to come to school
Determined to get an education
So, read your textbooks and write your papers
Study diligently
Raise your hand and ask your question
And never stop learning
Speak up
How many murdered and missing Indigenous women\
Vanished before they could make it
To your age?
How many were just barely adults
With their whole and wonderful lives ahead?
How could we not have cared
To know how many?
So, listen to their mothers, cousins
Neighbours and elders
Who will not yield in their pursuit of justice
It’s long past time
But do the work to educate yourself
And it took too long
But you believe art can ignite change
Use your art
To stand with them now
Speak up
A new mom
Wasn’t seen as a whole person
As a patient in a hospital room
And now, she feels grief and trauma
And deeply violated
From what should’ve been
The happiest day
Of her whole life
So, make the calls and write the letters
File complaints and demand investigations
Knowing until there’s systemic changes
Women will be killed
Every day in our healthcare system
All because no one would listen
To a woman
Speak up
Push back against how
It was treated as a tragedy
When any woman in your family
Didn’t have a child by age 40
With no weight given
To all that she had achieved and accomplished
So, keep building a community
A circle of rich and full and effervescent women
Who choose to be child-free
Speak up
For your grandmothers and great-aunts
Who wanted more from this life
Than they were ever allowed to have
Who had goals and hopes and plans
That were just for themselves
But they couldn’t even open a bank account
So for a generation, forge your own path
And decide your own purpose
And make them so damn proud
Of who their granddaughter is now
Speak up
All the women who came before
Down your family tree
What they would give to be here now
And see 2023
So, look back through history
What did they stand for and believe
Now, you are their legacy
What will you do with their last name
You carry?
Speak up
Though this one
Is the hardest one of all
When this big world and even humans you trust
Tell you that this part should feel wrong
I know you’ve been conditioned
Your whole life
But do you think that maybe you could try
Try to stand up for yourself
To take up space and be loud
Girl, drown the patriarchy out
Speak up!
Written April 3, 2023
© 2023 Kelly Ann Wilson
Comments
Shelby Pryor
Wed, 2023-10-04 22:38
Just... wow.
This is a really powerful piece. I love how you put "speak up" before every new topic. Great work!