I am the face of Woman Kind

I wear my makeup well

I smile and gently nod my head

As I twirl my parasol.

I hear your words of wisdom

As I listen with my eyes

I shift my feet from side to side

Have you fathomed my disguise?

My cover has been carefully groomed

You think you see through me

The struggle of my everyday

My service expected for free.

Daily chores and endless drudgery

Generally hidden from view

Serve to diminish my right to be

A person separate from you.

I am the face of woman kind

I understand you well

I pay for my appearance

Carefully perfume my soul

Become who you think I should be

So we can exist as one.

But when I grow old and change

My dimples disappear in folds

To you I am no longer a face

That deserves to be looked upon.

For I am no longer the one

The one you knew and wanted

To you I am some other

Old and finished and done.

But really never you mind

For I am still

The face

Of woman kind.

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Poem by Renee Dallow ( copyright. )

From ‘The Song Of Cicada Wings’

Paintings ( Australian ) include … A Beautiful Day In Beaut Royal ( Rupert Bunny ), A Holiday In Mentone, ( John Condore ), Art Students 1895 ( Emanuel Phillips- Fox )

( Loaned to Florence Richardson on behalf of Mary Gardiner-Kerr. )

Florence Richardson, in my novel ‘The Song Of Cicada Wings’, is a suffragette and Mary Gardiner-Kerr was in fact a real writer of suffragette poetry and stories. Unfortunately Mary Gardiner-Kerr’s work no longer exists anywhere and so I tried to imagine the kind of poem she might have written. Its amazing to me that so little remains of the suffragette writings. Why Mary Gardiner-Kerr, in particular? Because she married Albert Vincent Richardson. Florence’s older brother and my great great uncle.