ode to the genius of women, erased
03/04/2023ode to the genius of women, erased
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Ode to the Genius of Women, Erased
By: Grace Liang
Spoken Word Poetry, Grade 10 English
Performed and Written in 2021-2022
In the margins of man’s memory,
I discovered her.
She was the inventor of the computer algorithm
whose data was erased from our minds.
She was the writer of the first novel
sidelined into the footnotes of history
She was the queen who conquered kingdoms
cast into the shadow of men’s crowns
Because men feared her pride,
they branded her brilliance to unworthy names
and reaped, for themselves, her fame
Because men feared her mind,
they accused her wisdom of being witchcraft
and met her miracles with massacre.
Because men feared her drive,
they slaughtered her at the stakes she raised
and tossed the remains like trash.
When she proved
that merely being a man has no merit,
they erased her off the face of history
made her mastery into a mystery
Like how barbed wire tears skin
they tore this precious lineage from
the girls who longed for a legend of their own
and told them:
that their only role is to
domesticate their dreams
and watch as they dry and decay,
that the only thing a woman can birth
is a child, while the offspring of men’s labour
can define excellence itself,
that the greatness of girls
should only be discussed in gossip
and the mere afterthoughts of our archives,
that their toil will only be subject to silence,
never to be learned of
—and to object is to be burnt off.
Our record of female genius
comes from a family tree with ink blots
over the portraits of those who dared to rebel,
leaving faint faces that all but few have forgotten.
However,
it takes just one ray of light
to coax a rainbow from a prism,
just one word to construct an epic,
just one woman to inspire many more,
to blaze a trail for millions more to tread upon
into art, science, politics
into creation, invention, leadership
into progress, innovation, and change
—and out of the margins of history
to where our strokes of genius can make a mark
even after being crossed out by the strokes of a pen,
in the hands of men.
Reprogrammed into our minds,
Revised with fresh knowledge,
Reigning over the myth of male supremacy—
Though wounded and worn,
she clings to the pages
of books that once shut her out.
Her footsteps are a kindly guide
for the girls trekking through paths
where they were once denied entry.
She lives on in the hopes of women
who hope to harness her brilliance
to brighten the world.
And with each day,
more of history,
will, rightfully, be hers.
The women alluded to in this poem are:
Ada Lovelace
Murasaki Shikibu
WRITTEN BY: GRACE LIANG
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