Priorities (#womeninscience) by Clara B. Jones

Priorities (#womeninscience)

“Women have no wilderness in them.” Louise Bogan (1923)

1. She said, “Don't do it.”

Barrenness recommended.

Science is uphill.

I was your student

but her path led upward.

I paid with reason.

You wanted babies

and forthwith tossed a career

to an agreeable postdoc.

2. Having one more child

made me a disappointment

fieldwork compromised.

“How hallowed is your contract?”

“Have you thought about Plan B?”

Few follow the path

that men understand.

3. She liked the idea

Sociobiology abstract and poignant

not child's play to me

a promised Acknowledgment.

A lasting lesson

a scientific method

now cautious of her concepts.

4. No seeming affect,

betraying the grievous loss

to a former friend.

What pleasures did wild jaguars

trade as compensation?

Emotions shaken

intentional life secured.

Work trumps loneliness

another healing anodyne.

5. Don't blame me, young girl

for problems he could not solve

pretending otherwise.

Formulas without proofs

pressed wildflower blossoms

scattered on campus.

6. Unlike Vienna or Provincetown or Big Cove

the flowering legumes of Palo Verde

beckoned bees

foragers

lonely travelers

to suck

to taste

to repurpose

E(nergy)

until the loopy webs

uncoiled from cutting

overgrazing

civilizing management

to please manicured invasives

hostile to sweat and rain.

The feminization of wilderness

wrought by restless men

wooing a frivolous kind

no longer occupied by children

or other homebound projects.