Editor’s note: This poem, written by Sheri Lynn, is based on and dedicated to the Women’s March for Reproductive Rights that took place on October 2, 2021.
on my back
upon sun kissed concrete
greeted by a baby blue sky
where white wisps
tease my senses to
feel at peace
on this Saturday afternoon
is this the same sky
where women
and trans-men
for whom I lie here
in silence went
as they
died when
their reproductive
health care access
was denied
do their once
tear-stained eyes
now dried
rest in peace
how is it anyone
believes such a
heart wrenching
decision
is as easy as the choice is
in the moment
for a man
to wear a condom
or not
this sky will yield
to a deep red fire
when more suffer, die
in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma,
and wherever else is yet to fall
we know women of means
will do what they do
in night’s quiet
in more ‘forgiving’ states
and yet such states of being
a paradox
all of us on our backs
still, hushed, yet deafening
aside Teddy Roosevelt’s statue
who once said
“This country will not be a good place
for any of us to live in
if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.”
do we ask forgiveness
for the decades, centuries
of pain, shame, disdain
when freedom’s breath
was taken with the swipe
of a pen
by men
who never live
with such a choice
made for them
collaring their body
will, should
vasectomies become
a law for prevention or cause
ha, you laugh
‘of course, not
how preposterous
to think
such a decision be mandated
by a government
body’
ah and here lies the shadow truth
my body, myself
your body, yourself
our bodies, ourselves
and here I lay
for you
on my back
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