SHE PERSISTED

After watching others come and go,
she tried, quite young,
to open doors,

not wanting to forgo her chance,

she persisted,

by opening the kitchen cupboards
and forming a band
with pots and pans,

it got everyone’s attention,

so, she persisted,

through kindergarten,
grade school, high school,
college, parenthood,
law school,

she made good noise,

then, rejection, dejection,
doors firmly closed,
no women here, no Jews here,
no young mothers here,

all reasons to exclude,
back then,

yet, over time,
through renewed effort,
doors opened,

she stepped through one,
after another, after another,
until one set remained,

the doors to the Supreme Court,

they were heavy,
weighty with decisions
that had come before,

she bore the mantle of it all
with wisdom, honor and grace,
through cancer, through loss,
through political strife,

she persisted and insisted on doing her best,
for all of us,

and now her loss is hard to bear.

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)