I Stand Where Other Women Stood.  And I Wonder . . .

I stand where Jane, Rachel and Indian women once stood,
Seeing  the mountains, sky, earth and streams,  that they once saw.
Did they dream as I dream?  Did they dream of me?

Jane, pioneer woman, ekeing out a life in a cabin by the stream,
 Conceiving, Carrying and Bearing her eighteen children
On this same spot.  Did she dream as I dream?  Of me?

Or was she numbed by the cruel days and nights
Of ‘making do’ with ne’er a moment to stop and just be woman?
Did she dream as I dream?  And wonder?  About me?

And that sweet, child-bride Rachel, alone in a family of men.
The mountains, sky, earth and stream the same, but,
Did she dream as I dream? And wonder of the next woman? Me?

I see countless Indian women, standing where I now stand,
Seeing the same mountains, sky, earth and streams, and ask
Did they dream?  Did they dream, wonder?  Of another woman, me?

Today I stand where Jane, Rachel and Indian women once stood,
Circled by the same mountains, sky, earth and streams,
And I, too, dream and wonder,  about them.  Jane, Rachel, Indians.

The eternal mountains, sky, earth and streams are the same, but
 It’s a highway by my door; golf course, not pasture; Ipod in every hand.
And I dream and wonder, of a peace and quiet no longer here.

Bewildered, do the mountains, sky, earth and stream ever wonder, too?

Ethel Bradford
March 8, 2013