(In honor of Councilwoman Hazel Erby and Dr. Molly Metzger) 

Give a woman a fish and she’ll fry it.

Give a man a pole and he’ll swing it.

There is the difference;

That’s the rub–

We feel compelled to make it work for everyone and they don’t.

They say women are collaborative and men are competitive.

They’ve never shown up for a meeting

Where the food, the venue, and the agenda were all their responsibility.

We compete against time.

How many grants can we finish between nap times, changes and loads of laundry?

How can we make the art that moves us before the submission deadline in the school pickup line?

How do we justify teaching children to clean themselves for a dirty system? To show up for a world that isn’t showing up for them?

How? Girl, how do you do it all? They ask. 

My answer: I watched women like Councilwoman Hazel Erby 

Enduring the outrageous slings and arrows

Climbing the mountain of respectability to plant a garden there. 

Grow fruit we all eat from now.

Standing with us around Michael Brown’s body angry enough to stomp into the ancestral realm, wake Fannie Lou Hamer, and get permission to name a club after her. 

It’s hard work gestating, birthing and raising ourselves; not to mention a movement.

How? Girl, how do you do it all? They ask. 

My answer: I watched women like Dr. Molly Metzger

Turning our faces toward truth

Forcing us to face ourselves

Training the most promising of us to always bring receipts

Flame keeper, igniting young workers for the social practice of justice

Tending to the small fires, so we’ll have warmth for generations.

These women 

These women, who take girls to the cellar and show us how to be stored up for the winter of our discontent

These women 

These women, who raise babies and objections

These women 

These women — councilwoman Hazel Erby and Dr. Molly Metzger — Standing on either side of the grave.

These women are why we are here. 

Why the fish is fried and we are fed.

These women are why we are free.

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I was asked to write a poem in honor of St. Louis Councilwoman Hazel Erby and Dr. Molly Metzger for the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council. Contact me at treasure@femininepronoun.com for custom services like original poetry.