Rosa, Malala, Coretta, Michelle, Winona, Angela
saw the barriers, jumped the hurdles or stood in front of them
saying I’m not jumping any more. I’m standing here, a woman,
who learned from my mother and her mother and her mother before her
that to persist is the same as resist. To go the long way, to step up and out, go high where they go low. I’m standing here, a woman,
to say the words I must say.