by Jan Chronister
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Actress Dorothy Newell “Creates Sensation with Suffrage Plea Painted On Her Pretty Back,” The Topeka State Journal, November 6, 1915. Photo: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress. |
You return from the protest,
VOTES FOR WOMEN
painted in perfect letters
across your broad back
bared by a daring dress,
hair a mess, banded
with a sequined scarf.
You look tired from the fight.
Please don’t end up in jail
like Alice Paul. Put on
some clothes. Stay home
with your child.
We don’t need the vote.
Jan Chronister splits her year between northern Wisconsin and southern Georgia. She has authored three full-length poetry collections and ten chapbooks. Her most recent is the fifth annual chapbook recounting the year through poems. Jan poetry appears in numerous print and online journals and anthologies. She also enjoys helping fellow poets publish their work.
