Accordion Card: “Matilda’s Roses”

Description

A Semigloss, 8 sided accordion card, featuring my original poetry and photography, with one unprinted side for writing on, and accompanied by a complimentary coordinating white envelope.

I took these photos of David Austen roses in my mother’s rose garden in South Royalton, Vermont. Roses were the Progressive Suffragette Leader Matilda Joslyn Gage’s favorite flower. The following poem I wrote in honor of Matilda’s monumental work for Women’s Rights, and the rights of all those oppressed, and in the hopes of getting the word out about all she has done in the name of justice and freedom for all. Her work has been hidden for too long!

$1 from every sale of this card will be donated to the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation.

Matilda’s Roses
Poem featured on Card
Written by Ashley Anne Strobridge

The Rose is bright and lovely,
and so is truth when treated right,
but do not treat her roughly
Or the thorns of justice will smite,
The hand that tries to bind us,
And take away our rights!

Matilda was a rose of truth,
A beacon for us all,
And her many daughters carry on,
Always answering the call!

We bloom into righteous women,
Speaking up in marble halls,
Gathering our sisters,
Helping each other when we fall.

The fight is not yet over,
For justice for one and all,
For Women, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and Asian,
And for creatures big and small,
And to keep religion out of politics,
We must not drop the ball!

Beautiful in her strength,
Glorious, like a blooming rose.
She glowed with righteous justice,
The golden road of equity she chose.

She was the inspiration for Dorothy,
A feminist trailblazer child,
Oz was birthed through her dreams for equity,
And so a better world Baum styled,
Based on friendship, kindness, and equality,
A place for all to live as one,
But it was Matilda who gave this fantasy breath,
And through her fire the fight begun.

Through speeches, books, and papers,
She fought for equity and rights for all.
But she died before seeing justice,
Though votes for women were installed,
Not everyone won freedom,
Though slowly, walls did fall.

Matilda’s story is rarely told,
She was an early white ally,
She stood for EVERYONE oppressed,
On this hill of justice she would die.
She was Abolitionist, Suffragette,
And “She Who Holds Up the Sky,”
She was an early vegetarian,
and “Separation of Church and State!” was her cry.

We must never forget her,
And her stalwart belief in rights,
For EVERYONE oppressed,
Not just for privileged and whites.

We must go to her home on the Underground Railroad,
And place our “I voted!” stickers,
On Matilda Joslyn Gage’s gravestone!
For it was SHE, not Anthony, who had the rigor,
To work so hard for one and all,
To receive justice, rights, and equity,
Whether Black, White, or Indigenous,
She understood the intersections and complexity.

We must never forget Matilda,
And how Roses were her flower,
They are beautiful in their justice,
But are sharp if you forget their power.