International Women’s Day: Broken Down Woman Blues
March 8, 2015
It has been 22 years since I wrote the poem below about a woman who was “broken down” from all she had gone through in her life. She knew she wasn’t alone, there were plenty of other women who also had the “broken down woman blues.” Today, on International Women’s Day, I am reflecting on how far we’ve come in the past 22 years, and recognize we still have a long way to go. Looking through some old writing the other night I ran across this poem and felt it fitting to share on International Women’s Day.
We come together as sisters, the women of the Broken Down Woman Blues. We’ve come to feel that no man will ever save us, that we can only rely on ourselves. We come from abusive relationships, we carry a lot of painful weight as we struggle to find ourselves in a man’s world.
And for some of us, we come together as sisters united by the struggle for our own rights as women, our own empowerment, the idea women still don’t have equality. When we stand up and we keep getting pushed down, we sometimes break down.
Women around the world know this truth…
Broken Down Woman Blues
She cried all through
The mornin’
She cried the evenin’
Through
It seemed as if cryin’
Was all the woman
Could do.
She said
No doctors gonna cure me
Ain’t nothin’
No one can do
I’m crying ’cause
I just got to
I got the
Broken down woman blues.
She cried for all
The love she gave
The love she never knew
She cried for all
The women of the world
Who got the
Broken down woman blues.
You know she’d seen
All kinds of trouble
Abuse, abortion,
Death and suicide, too
She grew tired
A just tryin’ to carry
The weight of all
She’d been through.
She said
No doctors gonna cure me
Ain’t nothin’
No one can do
I’m cryin’ ’cause
I just got to
I got the
Broken down woman blues.
She cryed for all
The love she gave
The love she never knew
She cried for all
The women of the world
Who got the
Broken down women blues.
You know she’d had
Her share of bad men
The good ones are far
And few
She’d been pushed
And put down so long now
There weren’t nothin’ more
For her to go through
She said
No man is gonna save me
Woman
I know it’s all up to you
But now
I’m crying’ ’cause
I just got to
I got the
Broken down woman blues.
She cried for all
The love she gave
The love she never knew
She cried for all
The women of the world
Who got the
Broken down woman blues.
She said one day
I’ll end this cryin’
I’ll get past
These mean ol’ blues
But now
I’m cryin’ ’cause
I just got to
I got the
Broken down woman blues.
Pamela J. Leavey c. 1993
The theme for this year’s International National Women’s Day is “Make It Happen”. I’m here to ask my sisterhood to join with me in working to “Make It Happen” for women around the world. It is long past time for women to rise up and send those “broken down woman blues” packing.
Together we stand strong…
*Thank you to Mike Brennan for use of his marvelous watercolor and ink painting: “The Blues.”
#MakeItHappen #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2015
UPDATE: There is more on my thoughts on International Women’s Day here: International Women’s Day: She’s ‘Not There’.
