Roll up your sleeves

The smell of someone else's
cigarette
on the breeze this morning
made me think of my Grandma
stealing a moment with a Lambert & Butler
by the back door
in the early morning,
while we were supposed to still be sleeping.
It made me think of all the women
I have known, loved, shared
moments with in my life. 
My two grandmothers
strong and tough:
independent, funny, clever women
who worked hard, grafted,
rolled up their sleeves,
shaped my life through
love,
fruit cakes, Club biscuits kept in the fridge,
endless games that indulged us and
incredible dinners that fed us,
cherished phone calls,
letters when people still wrote letters.
It made me think of
my mum, my sister,
my partner,
my mother in law, my sister in law,
my best friends and old friends and new friends,
women who've been through the darkest days,
who have given me some of my brightest light.
It made me think of what it meant to be
a young girl;
who loved dolls but cars too,
who loved Sylvanian Families but Southend United too,
who cast around for her identity but found it,
who admitted she liked girls.
As a woman you feel a power grow in you:
sometimes uncontrollable,
like you could determine weather,
twist fate,
summon other worlds.
You can
be fragile and be bold,
listen and be heard,
be a feminist and love buying makeup,
adore women and love kind men,
dress up and dress down,
lie in woe on your period, with a blanket and a Nancy Myers movie,
and most importantly
roll your up your sleeves and fight.



For International Women's Day 2018