Source

Cowboy Boots

I am wearing cowboy boots
but I am not a cowboy

I have lived in places
where cowboys come from
but I am not a cowboy

I come from places
where there are more cows than people
places where women got to vote
boasted about equality
when politically they needed the numbers
more than their humanity and rights were recognized
I come from women who fought for their existence
long after they were supposed to be equal
learned long ago this fight is not over
to not get comfortable in shallow promises
that actions need to meet words
or they loose their value

all this I am reminded today
while I wear my grandmother’s cowboy boots
vintage some would say
more-old, authentic, real, worn

worn into many stories
worn into stories I don’t even know
and my own as I write it now