Baggage
Laura Madeline Wiseman
Improvement in Portable Trunks, patent granted
winter 1874-1875
Pennsylvania, February 1875
John A. Fletcher
Washington, D.C.
My Dearest John,
You know how long I’ve carried this
idea: a transformable and cylindrical trunk
for women. The burdens of our sex,
the petticoats, corsets, dresses, and hats
of lady poets, writers, and orators, must go
on the train. I built a model to demonstrate
the hinges, casters, and straps necessary
to roll without lifting what’s held inside:
the interior writing-desk, the body divided
at its center, the mirror, the pigeon-holes,
the bureau with drawers and shelves
which double as furniture in a room without.
My schematic can’t explain our distance
between rail station and porter, hotel
and carriage, the long space we bear
if we expect to support our life.
It’s true, what you say about women
in a country ruled by men. Our dependence
manufactured until it appears natural
for me to look to men, to you, to shoulder
what, at times, I cannot. John, our shared loss
I hold inside a locket. Our daughter’s picture
presses against my heart. Your health,
can I do anything for you
from Pennsylvania?
Matilda