No Votes For Women Poem by Effie Yalena Steyn

Sometimes when I see your English girls
I wonder what the others felt.

Emmeline Pankhurst
Emily Wilding Davison
My two favourites.

We learnt about them in history and sociology, but my country's view was a little different to yours.
I wonder if they thought that they would be worshipped
by the
youth of today.
I don't think they wanted that, probably a wise thing because the
youth of today
wouldn't.

I see the girls walk down the street and I see that it is not good.
They are the anti-feminists.
'We don't want the vote, sir, we just want a good time'
To go out and get drunk and stumble home to a mother who doesn't care.
And I suspect that they would have stayed at home and not cared in any decade of any century because
sloth does not flee,
indifference does not crumble,
arrogance does not dissolve
and their sickness does not heal over time.

It's not right, that others suffered so much for something that is being lost.
Right in front of my eyes I see your vote going, girls.

But would you even notice?