Madhu

What is a woman?

By Madhushala Senaratne

What is a woman,
if not a mother,
a daughter or wife?

What is a woman,
her face painted free,
carrying no weariness, just light?

What is a woman,
tell me her duty,
outside of her home?

What is a woman,
painted with glory,
as the earth beneath her curls?

What is a woman,
fully draped,
whose gaze would she hold?

What is a woman,
whose name is not spoken,
perhaps dropped when sold?

What is a woman,
richly framed in a hallway now,
her place in history yet to be fully written,

And who is a woman,
who would paint her,
so in time she would be learnt?

 

(Inspired by Angelica Kauffman’s Portrait of a Woman, c1770-1785 at the Brighton Museum, January 2025)