Poem: Forgotten

Of course,
you don't know me

Unremembered -
I am that photograph
stolen
to ascend
the double-helical stairway of glory

Unheard -
I am that sigh
beneath
every note
of my brother's Symphony

Unseen -
I am that Rosewater Dish
won
and forgotten
as the hero erases 77 years' history

But no,
not anymore.

I am the Forgotten Woman,
storm-born, steel-forged;
rising from darkness
to claim my throne

undoing
the frills and ribbons
you chained me with

and I
will no longer be
unwritten

I will
no longer be
unsung

---

A tribute to the forgotten women of science, arts and sports. The ones robbed of deserving recognition, the ones cast into shadows as their brothers/fathers/male colleagues claimed the limelight.

My chosen ones:
Rosalind Franklin, whose Photo 51 cracked the long-elusive structure of DNA, an achievement for which she should have been given credit along with Crick and Watson.

Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart. Equally prodigious, but little-known, sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Virginia Wade. While the media went overboard when Andy Murray finally won Wimbledon in 2013 - "the first Brit to win the Wimbledon after 77 years" - very few people remembered that she won the singles in 1977.