National Women's Month: Part 5 of the Five-Part Collaboration between Artist AJ Meier Welch and Marie C Lecrivain

“We Won't Stay Silent, and We Are Watching You” (9 x12) from the series “Drawings of a Mad Saleswoman”© 2017 AJ Meier Welch, watercolor ink and pen on Bristol paper


After AJ Meier Welch's "We Won't Stay Silent, and We Are Watching You"

It was a glorious day filled with hopes, dreams,
and voices ringing with protests and songs,
a day where women of all stripes came together
with purpose,and pink pussy hats to dissolve
the boundaries of race, class, and ideological fallacies,
and to fill the space where they're needed most.

It was a day I could only celebrate on the periphery,
through social media snapshots of my friends carrying signs,
and their children upon their shoulders, in DC, Paris,
Los Angeles, and, amazingly, Antartica, where pink hats
kept cold ears warm, and hearts burning with enthusiasm.

It was a day that bound the better half of humanity
into a common promise; to take back the future,
be better to one another, and to keep marching
until the last oppressor's message is ground
to dust beneath the majesty of our feet.


© 2017 marie c lecrivain

National Women's Month: Part Four in the Five-Part Collaboration between AJ Meier Welch and Marie C Lecrivain

“What” (9 x12) from the series “Drawings of a Mad Saleswoman”© 2017 AJ Meier Welch, watercolor ink and pen on Bristol paper

After AJ Meier Welch’s “What?”

(dedicated to Eric Arthur Blair)

We’re all born with the same question;

What?, (usually followed by why?),

into a world full of questions

asked by others who have access

to a handful of hard-won truths,

and volumes of fables renamed history.

We all have a list of unanswered questions

that plague us in our deepest moments

of despair, startled awake at 4 am,

bathed in angry sweat and tears,

and we ask ourselves:

What happened?

What did I do?

What have I become?

We can grieve the loss of

the best part of ourselves,

the child of wonder we all once were,

tucked away in the most careful

and protected part of the soul,

surrounded by as many questions

as there are leaves on the trees of eternity

or

we can become that child again

© 2017 marie c lecrivain

National Women's Month: #2 of a Five-Part Collaboration Between AJ Meier Welch and Marie C Lercrivain

45 Bye-Bye from the series “Drawings of a Mad Saleswoman”© 2017 AJ Meier Welch, watercolor ink and pen on Bristol paper

After AJ Meier Welch's 45 Bye-Bye

Tears… blood… sweat… urine...

drops of matter engendered

by millions of mothers, daughters,

aunts, sisters, and friends who saw

their hopes and dreams washed down

the drain the day you ascended

the world stage. You swore to

represent us, the ones you regard

as nothing more than pretty faces

in a crowd, and pointed your index fingers

at us pistols loaded with evil intent.

What do you know of suffering,

privation, or of sacrificing

the last shard of self

to make a future for the ones

you love? You, who are steeped

in gold-plated privilege and

prestige you never earned?

What do you know of success,

which, for many of us,

includes holding your head high,

and accepting failure with grace?

What will happen the day

you look up into the sky

as the reign of womanhood

pours over you, a rising tide

whose bitter waters

will fill your mouth and ears

with the sound of silent sorrow?

Will it be enough

to stop your heart?

Will it be enough?

© 2017 marie c lecrivain