I Peel Potatoes Round and Round
The pots and pans are stacked away
The fruit and flour packed away
The spoons and ladles tied away
And half my life is lied away
I peel potatoes round and round
And see the muddy peelings mount
I peel and chop and boil and feel
My lifetime passing with the peel
The dust and crumbs are sucked away
The sheets and covers tucked away
The mud and mildew brushed away
And half my life is washed away
I am a woman and a wife
And all of you deny my life
Cast speeches of equality
And stifling silence over me
The socks and shirts are stacked away
The boots and woollens packed away
The shears and shovels tied away
And half my life is lied away
I am a woman and a wife
And all of you deny my strife
Is this two thousand seventeen?
My shackles hurt me more unseen
Christina Egan © 2016
Photograph: Christina Egan © 2013.
Pretended liberation of women = Double shifts for women = New servitude of women
Read more in the essay The Tea Turned Cold in the Cup at FEMINISM.
