"Paper Matches" by Paulette Jiles

Paulette Jiles was born in Salem, Missouri on April 4, 1943. She won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry.

“Paper Matches"

My aunts washed dishes while the uncles
squirted each other on the lawn with
garden hoses. Why are we in here,
I said, and they are out there?
That’s the way it is,
said Aunt Hetty, the shriveled-up one.
I have the rages that small animals have,
being small, being animal.
Written on me was a message,
“At Your Service,”
like a book of paper matches.
One by one we were taken out
and struck.
We come bearing supper,
our heads on fire.

This poem's speaker can be defined as any women, mostly younger. Mainly this poem is from the view point of a young girl, who feels as that it is unfair that her "aunts washed dishes while the uncles squirted each other." It is the girl’s first step to realizing that women are seen as housewives, not to have fun, and constantly "At Your Service." A while back, women were only housewives; they did not have jobs except to take care of the children, the house, and the husband. The speaker asks “Why are we in here,…and they are out there?” asking why are we doing chores, while they are having fun? But the aunt just answers because “that’s the way it is,” it is the way it always has been. The women are meant to do the chores; the women clean the house, make sure warm, good food is on the table when the husband comes home, the children have their homework done, and then after dinner the dishes are washed and dried. Now, more women are gaining jobs, and there are even dads that stay home. Feminism is on the rise because many women want to turn away from the housewives idea of women to have equal rights for women and men. The younger girl is showing that this revelation comes across for all women at some point. They realized what society expects of them, where they want to be the cook, the maid, the housewife or not.