I wrote this poem after visiting the British Museum on a very hot summer’s day in July 2022. I have always loved the Assyrian part of the museum, this time I came away thinking about what the role of women would have been in this culture and wrote this poem sitting under the trees in Russell Square Garden.
ANCIENT WOMEN
In these cultures,
ancient as they are,
where did they belong
- the women?
Were they public or private?
Owned or their own?
Where were their voices?
Where are they now?
Are their imprints still
echoing through
the space-time continuum,
where we somehow
can hear them, sense them
if we keep very still?
Or are they lost forever?
So far gone
that we will never
know
if they were honoured
or abused;
a part of life
or used
like cattle.
In their own ways,
did they battle
for more equality
in a culture and time
who’s public legacy
is mostly male;
where far too often
being female
was to be for sale,
with no choices.
Where are the voices
of the mothers,
the wives, the sisters,
the daughters?
The women
who supported each other,
helped each other
with life, death and birth,
and feel a sense of worth -
if they were allowed.
As happens too often,
they remain silent.
Telling us nothing.
But if we listen
to their silence
it whispers of
suffering.
© Saraphir Camille Legind July 2022
