Tuesday, March 8, 2022

In Honor of International Women's Day



 19th Amendment Ragtime Parade by Marilyn Chin 


Birthday, birthday, hurray, hurray

The 19th Amendment was ratified today


Drum rolls, piano rolls, trumpets bray

The 19th Amendment was ratified today


Left hand bounces, right hand strays

Maestro Joplin is leading the parade


Syncopated hashtags, polyrhythmic goose-steps

Ladies march to Pennsylvania Avenue!


Celebrate, ululate, caterwaul, praise

Women’s suffrage is all the rage


Sisters! Mothers! Throw off your bustles

Pedal your pushers to the voting booth


Pram it, waltz it, Studebaker roadster it

Drive your horseless carriage into the fray


Prime your cymbals, flute your skirts

One-step, two-step, kick-ball-change


Castlewalk, Turkey Trot, Grizzly Bear waltz

Argentine Tango, flirty and hot


Mommies, grannies, young and old biddies

Temperance ladies sip bathtub gin


Unmuzzle your girl dogs, Iowa your demi-hogs

Battle-axe polymaths, gangster moms


Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Lucy Burns and Carrie Chapman Catt


Alice Paul, come one, come all! 

Sign the declaration at Seneca Falls!

                                                                                                          

Dada-faced spinsters, war-bond Prufrocks

Lillian Gish, make a silent wish


Debussy Cakewalk, Rachmaninoff rap

Preternatural hair bobs, hamster wheels     


Crescendos, diminuendos, maniacal pianos

Syncopation mad, cut a rug with dad!


Oompa, tuba, majorette girl power

Baton over Spamalot!


Tiny babies, wearing onesies

Raise your bottles, tater-tots!


Accordion nannies, wash-board symphonies

Timpani glissando!

                    The Great War is over!


Victory, freedom, justice, reason

Pikachu, sunflowers, pussy hats


Toss up your skull caps, wide brim feathers

Throwing shade on the seraphim


Hide your cell phones, raise your megaphones!

Speak truth to power

                           and vote, vote vote!


WARNING:


Nitwit legislators, gerrymandering fools

Dimwit commissioners, judicial tools

Toxic senators, unholy congressmen

Halitosis ombudsmen, mayoral tricks

Doom calf demagogues, racketeering mules

Whack-a-mole sheriffs, on the take


Fornicator governators, rakehell collaborators

Tweeter impersonators, racist prigs

Postbellum agitators, hooligan aldermen

Profiteering warmongers, Reconstruction dregs


 


Better run, rascals     better pray

We’ll vote you out      on judgement day!


Better run, rascals      better pray


We’ll vote you out       on election day!

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