In the Steps of RBG
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.
—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as quoted in Notorious RBG
So let me take one step right now,
one step toward respect.
And give me strength to take another
toward clarity. And though
my feet might feel like stones, let
me take another step toward justice.
And another toward equity. And another
toward truth. And though my legs
may feel leaden and slow, though someone
else may step on my toes, may I inch
toward forgiveness. May every step
be toward a bridge. Enough divisiveness.
And as I go, may I find joy in the stepping,
grace in the edging toward great change.
But if there’s little joy, let me step anyway.
Then take another step. And another. And another.
Work Cited
Wahtola Trommer, Rosemerry. “In the Steps of RBG.” Rattle, 20 Sept. 2020, https://www.rattle.com/in-the-steps-of-rbg-by-rosemerry-wahtola-trommer/Links to an external site..
Artistic expressions of noteworthy events are anthropological excursions, reflections of the cultural Zeitgeist. They are imperative for understanding the emotions and thoughts of members of the society from whence they arise.
This poem was published Sept. 20, 2020 on Rattle Poetry, two days after the death of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg, the second woman and first Jewish woman appointed to U.S.’s highest court bench, served for 27 years until she died on September 18, 2020, ending her SCOTUS service to “Equal Justice Under Law,” words enshrined on the face of the SCOTUS building (see image series, taken by me on November 30, 2009, below).
IN THE STEPS OF RBG is emotionally galvanizing because it gives us heightened awareness of the trials and tribulations of justice work. Dismantling dominant paradigms is tedious, well expressed by these lines:
And though my legs
may feel leaden and slow, though someone
else may step on my toes, may I inch
toward forgiveness. May every step
be toward a bridge. Enough divisiveness.
I found this poem when I googled, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg poem.” I was specifically looking for prose such as this to offer a creative contemplation on RBG.
The poem is historically and culturally significant because of the timeliness of its writing and publication. In September 2020, we were dealing with Covid-19, a Trump presidency, and a frighting fistful of civil rights erosion. It was during a time when Ginsburg had activist pop culture kudos and gravitas through her dissenting opinions against the majority opinions from a SCOTUS swung far right; during a time when every day brought another blaring headline of mind-bogglingly media stories of sly and blatant movements toward a totalitarian regime from the Presidential Administration and its dominant Congress.
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