Oxford Girls

I heard about you on a bus Rain on glass, slowed us down A guide said some of Oxford’s brightest minds Were girls Oxford forgot They filled the margins in the class Latin, logic, literature - their Oxford Life They did the work, earned the marks Then disappeared in history’s past Some doors open after centuries Some truths outlive the proudest years Oxford girls, Oxford girls Bravely Walking through weathered fields Pages turned though doors were closed Roots were growing under stones Oxford girls, Oxford girls Brilliant as the men who Thrived Time can bend and bells can ring For every forgotten Oxford Girl I heard again in Oxford rooms Two authors writing about you One spoke your names like she was there One kept your footsteps in her play How many stories cross our path Until we know they came for us How many ghosts wear scholarship And wait for hearts open to hear Some doors open after centuries Some truths outlive the proudest years Oxford girls, Oxford girls Outshining the weathered fields Pages turned though doors were closed Roots were growing under stones Oxford girls, Oxford girls Brilliant as the men who emerged Time can bend and bells can ring For every forgotten Oxford Girl Somewhere in Oxford’s paneled halls Girls portraits whispered their past An Oxford girl unfurls forgotten past And lays the missing honors down Their anthem singing in Queens halls With trumpets in Sheldonian walls The University learning how to care How To love the ones who went there Oxford girls, Oxford girls Now the bells embrace your world Every Life honored Every voice alive for our future lives to thrive Oxford girls, Oxford girls New Morning stitched in pearls and gold You arrive as lightning! (Lighting, Lightning) Names written into Honor Roll I heard about you on the bus At home My bandage fell into my Oxford cup Thought about you for a while now Drinking tea, thinking out loud Now Oxford honors your names out loud I was one of those girls Who Came to get your honors back