I saw the presidents starched, silent and pressed in the pages
of history books though we started to call it social studies then already
maybe a little more correct politically but still skewed
to those old dead white men you gotta respect
even when your report is on Susan B Anthony.

The Cady Stanton House in Seneca Falls
on International Women’s Day
is hot and sun parched
the way central New York
sends sweat in threads
to collect where the back curves
but I don’t know heat

The heat of 25 pounds of fabric marking me
a member of the weaker sex