PROTECT OUR WOMEN (2023)

protect our women
and girls from violence
against the mayhem
and the silence

of pains
and abuses kept hidden
from the losses and costs
of living

in a capitalist world that
shows no regard
for those whose
labors are so hard

the labors of domestic and manual
work
the labors of gestation and
childbirth

lives devoted
to others’ growth
many forced alone
to rear our youth

in a world dominated by men
bent on dealing
death and doom
in opposition to the healing

that she brings
to the equation
his role destruction
hers creation

protect our women
reduced to playthings
objects of pleasure
not valued beings

exalt them love them
adore them praise them
in opposition to their degradation
we must raise them

to levels equal
to that of men
above the chauvinist lie
of the original sin

from them all men are birthed
not the reverse
so how do we conceive
that an Adam came first

human society began
with women in the lead
under primitive communism it was they who
met social needs
indeed

they were matriarchal clans
that relied on women to feed them
where they enjoyed
full sexual freedom

but societies changed
as classes arose
property relations
reversed the roles

of the sexes
if truth be told
through force of arms
men took control

passing wealth and status
through male descent
through each social evolution
men would reinvent

classes that raised them to
the helm
of all roles in society
where they would overwhelm

women and girls
reduced to domestic slaves
sexual objects child bearers
and victims of the depraved

urges of males
corrupted by the ruling classes
whose agenda was to dominate
by dividing the masses

along lines of gender
race, ownership of wealth
creating every deviant trend
that undermined social health

hence the need
for gender unity
as essential to unite
today’s broken communities

so we must return
to the source of the communal vision
advance with women in the lead
back forward to communism

the only system
that will free
our women
let them be

the force of nature
they truly are
beacons of hope
society’s guiding star

Art and poem by Kevin ”Rashid” Johnson