The Crucial Research

Composed for February Poetry Adventure Day 14 Prompt - Bunny

I have opened this tab
Only curious to find 
the meaning of this word,
Few synonyms that may fit better,
Or the etymology that might open more doors.

I will close these sites soon, 
I’m merely reading up on the artists,
who have written on this topic before,
These won’t take that long to browse,
Wikipedia might have compiled a list I could explore.

I am ending this search, as I type
These stanzas,
I am almost done,
There is something curious
About the life of that one author though…

I want to know if he had a female shadow writer,
as was common for those times,
Or if his wife illustrated his work(s),
Perhaps doing the ‘meagre’ work
of gathering all sources for his field notes.

I wonder where they lived,
how their household functioned...
Was there respect, 
even without attributed 
recognition.

I will just get back to my poem,
After I see how many issues she was asked to conceive,
While doing the ‘menial’ chores for his work,
Only to make good use of all the free time,
Women so often seemed to have.

I’m almost done reading 
The names of their children
Carefully deleting her presence from their lives
Choices that never reached her, 
Decisions declared, depriving her of her rights.

I only have 25 tabs open, 
Won’t take much time to return,
Let me just quickly create a playlist 
to help me focus and write
and maybe find a more suitable word.

Black micron pen and White gel pen for details on toned paper sketchbook created by yours truly in January 2025, based on images from Pinterest

Sharing the link to the note below, along with the post by Petra Hernandez, if you wish to give this adventure a try and compose one of your own :)