This poem was inspired by a wonderful quote used by both Martin Luther King Jr., and President Barack Obama in their speeches:  “the arc of the moral universe — of history — is long but it bends toward justice…”

I’ve titled my poem “We are Alice.”

My poem also hearkens to the 1871 novel by Lewis Carol, titled ‘Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.”  In this book, Alice enters a fantastical world by climbing through a mirror into a world that she can see beyond it.

– By Luisamaria Ruiz Carlile, April 7, 2016 [Shared with Criterion at our recent Summit on the State of the Field of Gender Lens Investing on April 8th, 2016]

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We are Alice, lensing thru the looking glass.

Gender benders, strong offenders of the status quo.

Spotlight on the hidden influencers,

Seeing wealth beneath the bias,

Abundance in the last and least.

Leaning in…..to the massive levers of finance,

Smashing past the silos,

Blasting social constructs, ossified and creaking.

Until a new math emerges.

Assigning  value beyond the counting,

Measuring what truly matters,

Here we are,

Alice lensing through the looking glass,

Gender bending the arc of her story so that it tilts toward justice.

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