For RBG

The Lost Daughter

For the inspiration — and in memory of — Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Where are you, my Daughter?

Where is your heart, where is your mind — where is the strength of your soul striving for millennia to be released?

You gave yourself up long ago to the Powers that Be —

Thinking them stronger than you, wiser than you, more worthy of devotion or love or even power — Enough to forget who you are.

Those who crave power are weak. Those who pretend strength are afraid. Yet you have allowed them to take what is rightfully yours —

Yourself.

I have lost millennia of daughters to others’ silent siege — and look at the world that has been wrought. You are necessary to balance the world of Men.

Each of you is your own soul, your own heart, your own mind, your own body, and your own blood. You are a part of the fabric of Time, the heart and soul, body and blood of this world.

But you ask: “Who am I? What right do I have?”

Without you, the world is nothing and humanity would cease to exist.

You are as strong, as powerful, a force of good and evil and every shade of gray in between.

But you have cowered for too long and have not chosen to awaken — and so the balance has been lost.

On every continent, every sea, every land on which Humanity resides, you have…