Women of Antarctica

The women of Antarctica
Have sent the men away
Claiming they need better food
And medicine
When really
They're just sick of looking at them

As soon as the boats
Go past the first glacier
The women let out a whoop
And they dance around in a circle

Grabbing their daughters' hands
And promising that from now on
The workload will be heavier
But the rewards will be greater

They notice their sons
Standing back, away from them
And they call them forward
Place their hands on the boys' shoulders
And say--

'You will be different from your fathers'

The women get to work
On lighting better fires
And fishing where they know
There are bigger fish

They have kept these secrets to themselves
So as to convince the men
That the situation was dire

They tell stories
They've never been allowed to tell
About other women
That the men believed were forgotten

Their mothers, and grandmothers
And aunts, and lost daughters

The men knew the dangers
Of history

And so they forbid the women
From talking about those
Who came before them
And instead made them listen
To stories about men

The fathers who beat them
The grandfathers who beat them
The uncles and brothers who did even worse

They will still tell stories about these men
Because they do not want anything to be forgotten
Because forgetting could be more dangerous
That what is forgotten

They pull all the huts closer together

The men enjoy living in isolation
But the women now want to feel
A sense of community
For themselves and their children

They eat and laugh
And stay up late in the night
Naming things
In the Arctic sky
That never had names before

Every now and again
One of them will ask
What will happen
When the men return, if they do

And someone else always says--

'When they come back, we will be waiting for them'

Nobody asks what that means
Because they understand
It means many different things

But they all know
That it's true

That the one thing they are now
That they were not before
Is ready