Dear Jane . . .
I have often wondered, when reading books your wrote,
Whether you understood the reality of the life that you portrayed?
When your characters are dressing, did you mean a cloak or coat,
When they ate their meals did you know how the food was made?
Did you understand the conventions that guided what was said?
Did you understand that women kept their thoughts tight in their head?
Did you see that men were powerful, and kept their egos fed?
Did you see that women's life was just a drudge until they're dead?
My dear,
I realise these questions may have troubled you, but
I need to make it clear that I wrote of women's lives
And that the men who owned women were the ones who made the cut,
And my hope was always that my words would stay alive
And change things.
The prompt today was to write a letter to a famous person from history in one stanza, and then to write their reply in a second stanza.