poem from two voices
This poem is taken from Chapter 34 when Maya is working to get a job at the Market Street Railway Company. She runs into trouble when she finds out that the company does not hire black women to work as conductorettes. Maya decides to be persistent and goes to the Market Street Railway Company office to ask for a job application. Every day for weeks, she is turned away. Finally, one day the receptionist gives her an application and Maya is given the job. Maya shows the receptionist some grace in realizing that she is just a part of the company and did not come up with the rules that the company has put in place. I wrote this poem using the perspectives of Maya and the receptionist. Maya's perspective is explicitly stated in the text, so this poem fills in the second voice of the receptionist as she watches Maya's fight to become San Francisco's first black conductorette.