Monday, April 21, 2014

She Carries On

Keep calm

and turn eighty-eight
years old

and be admired
by the descendants

of the hardscrabble farmers
and newly-Industrial laborers
who would've rebelled

(or at least stood
on the soapbox
in the center of town

yelling about how unfair
it all was

to a sympathetic crowd
before retiring to the pub)

or the somewhat more
upper-class people
who just happened not to be

too tired to become
a righteous revolutionary mob
in the same day

and did.

Keep calm and be noticed
for your "very kind eyes
with a mischievous glint"

by the photographer
who captured you.

Keep calm and despite
your station
and now mostly-symbolic title

continue to be seen
as a living how-to guide
on the basic traits of womanhood
(and humanhood)

looking good
and taking charge.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.