Poem for Wednesday and Women's Rights National Park

My Daughter All Yourn
By Farid Matuk

will she be closer to the falling away of the gaze of things than others?
hands on the water she calls scene setting
hands on the table water over the houses and hills swimming
not the ocean or the sea but the frame of time she'll tell of
wild happy yeses in her hands
she bites through in rage when rage
comes to her or we do and she's too small a flag
what does our house say? these borrowed things solid and whole
fabric lost to her a greasy boy speaks fast at the pizza stand
more available to be seen the young in their concerns
amidst the old artifice paint a boat and it will mean a dream
put names of your dear ones in it all yourn standing up
these little soft hands she bites through the bright white light of summer
shines off sand and vinyl siding itself composed against the salt

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I am having one of those weeks where I feel like I can't catch up no matter what I do, which I guess travel makes inevitable. In the late morning I took Adam to get a haircut, which he wanted to do before spring break ends Wednesday, and we stopped in the food store to get him bell peppers and Clif Bars. Then he went to track practice and I sorted all the college stuff we picked up over the course of the past week.

It was cooler than the past couple of days but still gorgeous out. I saw lots of neighborhood daffodils outside and a bit of the Orioles opening game on TV, which they won, both of which are happy-making; sadly, Maryland lost their NIT game against the Hawkeyes, so the Terps' post-season is over. We switched between that game and Smash since I am superstitious about watching games my team is losing, but switching didn't help!


This is Elizabeth Cady Stanton Park in Seneca Falls, New York, with the Seneca Knitting Mills across the river.


Across the street from that is Women's Rights National Historical Park...


...which celebrates the history of women and the women's rights movement in America.


Here I am with statues of some of the attendees of the Seneca Falls Convention, where the question of women's suffrage became a central tenet.


There's a particular focus on the economic and financial treatment of women...


...and the alliances with (and sometimes schisms from) emancipation and the fight for rights for others.


Much of the town still looks the way it did many years ago.


The Wesleyan Chapel where the convention was held has been sold and restructured many times, but is now part of the national park.