She was just one more woman,
sick and tired
on another tiresome day
of being told
what to do,
who to be.
That Rosa.
Does she know how funny it is
that she took a stand
by sitting down?
Not funny in a “haha” kind of way,
but funny,
in the way
tired women rising
can look
simple
and
ordinary,
all the while
galvanizing nations
and making history.
That’s the part of
her story I hold onto
most as a woman,
not the fact
that she, a black woman
in the 1950’s sat down
in the front
of a segregated bus, but
how sometimes
choosing
the right and ordinary thing
can take
the resolve of mountain movers
and the courage
of aging women.

- On a Woman Sitting Down