Working Women
To Be
of Use
by Marge
Piercy
The people
I love the best
jump
into work head first
without
dallying in the shallows
and swim
off with sure strokes almost out os sight.
They
seem to become natives of that element,
the black
sleek heads of seals
bouncing
like half - submerged balls.
I love
people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull
like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain
in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do
what has to be done, again and again.
I want
to be with people who submerge
in the
task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work
in a row and pass the bags along,
who are
not parlor generals and field deserters
but move
in a common rhythm
when
the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work
of the world is common as mud.
Botched,
it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the
thing worth doing well done.
Women are becoming more
and more powerfull everyday. This poem can relate to many working
women. This poem is very insirational and shows women that no
matter if it is discrimination or low pay, women keep working
as hard as they can to get the job done. They can succeed. Since
women can be inspired and can relate to this poem, it makes it
very different from government, academic, and advocacy sources.
Piercy, Marge. 1999. "To
Be of Use." In Kesselman et al. Women: Images and Realities:
A Multicultural Anthology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Pp
231.
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