A political poem in political times

What To Do

Read Mary Oliver over and over. Read Jane Eyre, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nancy Drew, the book by Louise Nevelson where she says I think that there is such a thing as energy, creation overflowing. Make apple cake with raisins and spices. Change the towels. Change the sheets. Change the locks. Go to Duke Gardens and see if the water lilies are still in bloom, if the Japanese bridge is still painted red. Call Coach and complain about the bag where the zipper placket tore. Repot the houseplants. Eat salted cashews, yogurt with stewed blueberries, dark chocolate. Say a rosary. Sweep the floor. Find the prayer card of Saint Lucy. Purge shoes and earrings and scarves. Look at the photographs of one grandmother a widow, the other in a housedress, neither of them smiling. Listen to Barbra Streisand sing I’d Rather be Blue in Funny Girl. Listen to Fanny Brice singing it first in 1928. Go to see Gaspard & Dancers with Jane. Walk with Lynn. Walk with Sally. Walk with April. Keep walking. Look at Georgia O’Keeffe’s White Flower, blowing up in your face. Remember when Betty Friedan debated Phyllis Schlafly, how Betty lunged forward and rose up from her chair. Remember hearing Adrienne Rich, Tillie Olsen, Gloria Steinem, Nikki Giovanni. Remember Ethel Merman belting out the revival of Annie Get Your Gun. Remember how Annie missed the shot to get her man. Remember being told don’t let the boys hear you say that and it’s so nice when that first one is a boy. Remember pushing out children into the world. Remember the truth you are telling all the time. Remember how much you had hoped things would change. Remember it, remember it all, and rage on, rage on, rage on, rage on, rage on.