VERDAD  JUSTICIA  AMOR

“Queen Without a Face,” image by Monteque Pope-Le Beau

this way to Table of Contents

Before I answer your questions, I’m going to ask you to answer a question . . ..  And that was the question that came out of my reading of A Room of One’s Own in which Virginia Woolf says, “Don’t write protest.” The woman writer should not write protest.  Okay, so what does she mean? And the question I asked was “How can a woman of the American Empire not write protest?

                                                                                                —Maxine Hong Kingston

On every given morning

Women’s prayers dam the waters of history.

                                                                                                            —Sarah Black

All the wombs claimed for war’s offspring.

All the mothers left enraged, bereft.

                                                                                                            —Leatha Kendrick

What do you mean you’re queer? You’re dating a man!

What do you mean you’re Puerto Rican? You’re so polite.

What do you mean you’re a woman? I can’t seem to keep you down.

                                                                                                            —Vero Gonzalez

…the voices of the Abuelas resound

Verdad  Justicia  Amor.

                                                                                                            —Debbie Hall