The Draughtsman

Image of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega 5B, courtesy Smithsonian Open Access.

It started with propellers

in your absence, men.

I stepped into the role,

and imagination

came in precise torrents,

ideas like hail,

the beauty of propulsion.

Substitution led to invention,

a life given to hours at the table;

I was allowed room to create,

to rise and join ranks,

while men killed men

in fields, water, sky.

Steadily, my hand wedded paper,

designing, analyzing, building,

filled with locomotive energy,

my mathematical mind traversed

the span of two world wars.

See, girls of this new millennium,

you can do this:

lead, defy, excel.

So, while you were away, men,

I spent the hours focused on the forward.

The Draughtsman was written in honor of Verena Winifred Holmes (1889-1964), an English engineer who was a trailblazer in her field during World War I and World War II, and beyond. The poem was composed in response to a creative writing call for submissions by Medway Libraries, UK, for its Circle of Six Women Project, and was selected for inclusion in its anthology, "Inspired by Six Women who Shook the World" (2023), where the poem first appeared.

The Draughtsman, Copyright © 2022 by Donna Kathryn Kelly