> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://dianaludwick.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Suffs
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/suffs/
- Published: 2026-05-28T17:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-28T17:43:00.000Z
- Description: “Suffs,” written May 28, poem 148 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo, "At the Doors," by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Homage, Poems, Act, Daughters, Doors, Drama, Find a Way, Innocents, Intermission, May, Meaning, Mothers, Roses, Spring, Streets, Suffs, Thursday, Trauma, Vote, White, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

We navigate from the burbs into the city  
it's taken us months to get this far  
two tickets to the seven o'clock show  
we're really getting away this time.   
  
We are dressed all in white, two innocents  
not fully, but somewhat naively   
representing equity, justice, suffrage,  
while stepping into it, and in it, on the streets.  
  
I don my red satin blooms,  
 "bread and roses, bread and roses"  
and she clacks down the pavement in block heels.  
At the restaurant over quesadillas and strip steak,  
we create our own meaning while pondering truly dark topics.  
  
We realize we're late to the theatre,  
we cut through courtyards and office parks,   
sprint up hilly urban avenues  
and pause at crosswalks until the streetcar passes.  
  
We take our seats, the miraculous ones she found out of thin air  
and we cling to the edges of our worn velvet push-downs.  
  
*"How will we do it when it's never been done?* 
*How will we find a way, when there isn't one?"*   
  
This isn't entertainment, it's a thesis.  
  
During the first Act, we cry more times than we can count  
During the second, we hold each other's hands,   
take turns being the strong one, gripping shoulders, patting forearms.  
At the intermission, we find the restroom, and our mascara-dripped faces.  
  
We go outside to get some air  
contemplate the narrative  
take stock of the dramas and traumas unfolding all around us  
find a route through, the brave way, the hard way.  
  
*"Find a way* 
*We've got to find a way?* 
*Find a way."*  
  
When there isn't one, we forge it anyway.  
Doors closed, intermission over, we're late  
but we push through and into the next journey.