Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Cover

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Cover

 

 

 

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Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 1

Stanza 1

 

 

don't lower your eyes
or stare straight ahead to where
you think you ought to be going

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 2

Stanza 2

 

 

don't mutter oh no
not another one
get a job   fly a kite
go bury a bone

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 3

Stanza 3

 

 

with her oldfashioned sandals
with her leaden skirts
with her stained cheeks and whiskers and heaped up trinkets
she has risen among us in blunt reproach

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 4

Stanza 4

 

she has fitted her hair under a hand-me-down cap
and spruced it up with feathers and stars
slung over one shoulder she bears
the rainbowed layers of charity and murmurs
all of you   even the least of you

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 5

Stanza 5

 

 

don't cross to the other side of the square
don't think another item to fit on a tourist's agenda

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 6

Stanza 6

 

 

consider her drenched gaze   her shining brow
she who has brought mercy back into the streets
and will not retire politely to the potter's field

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 7

Stanza 7

 

 

having assumed the thick skin of this town
its gritted exhaust its sunscorch and blear
she rests in her weathered plumage
bigboned   resolute

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 8

Stanza 8

 

 

don't think you can ever forget her
don't even try
she's not going to budge

Rita Dove. Lady Freedom Among Us. Image stanza 9

Stanza 9

 

 

no choice but to grant her space
crown her with sky
for she is one of the many
and she is each of us

 

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