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Wonder Woman by Genny Lim (1981)
from This Bridge Called my Back edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, 2015 [first edition 1981].
"Wonder Woman" Genny Lim
Sometimes I see reflections on bits of glass on sidewalks I catch the glimmer of empty bottles floating out to see Sometimes I stretch my arms way above my head and wonder if There are women along the Mekong doing the same Sometimes I stare longingly at women who I will never know Generous, laughing women with wrinkled cheeks and white teeth Dragging along chubby, rosy-cheeked babies on fat, wobbly legs Sometimes I stare at Chinese grandmothers Getting on the 30 Stockton with shopping bags Japanese women tourists in European hats Middle-aged mothers with laundry carts Young wives holding hands with their husbands Lesbian women holding hands in coffee-houses Smiling debutantes with bouquets of yellow daffodils Silver-haired matrons with silver rhinestoned poodles Painted prostitutes posing along MacArthur Boulevard Giddy teenage girls snapping gum in fast cars Widows clutching their crucifixes I look at them and wonder if They are a part of me I look in their eyes and wonder if They share my dreams I wonder if the woman in mink is content If the stockbroker’s wife is afraid of growing old If the professor’s wife is an alcoholic if the woman in prison is me There are copper-tanned women in Hyannis Port playing tennis Women who eat with finger bowls There are women in factories punching clocks Women tired of every waking hour of the day I wonder why there are women born with silver spoons in their mouths Women who have never known a day of hunger Women who have never changed their own beed linen And I wonder why there are women who must work Women who must clean other women’s houses Women who must shell shrimps for pennies a day Women who must sew other women’s clothes Who must cook Who must die In childbirth In dreams Why must women stand divided ? Bulding the walls that tear them down ? Jill-of-all-trades Lover, mother, housewife, friend, breadwinner Heart and spade A woman is a ritual A house that must accomodate A house that must endure Generation after generation Of wind and torment, of fire and rain A house with echoing rooms Closets with hidden cries Walls with stretchmarks Windows with eyes Short, tall, skinny, fat Pregnant, married, white, yellow, black, brown, red Professional, working-class, aristocrat Women cooking over coals in sampans Women stretching their arms way above the clouds In Samarkand, in San Francisco Along the Mekong
Wonder Woman by Genny Lim (1981)
from This Bridge Called my Back edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, 2015 [first edition 1981].