Monday, May 09, 2022

THE ART OF THE HANGER

by Anita Pulier


Abortion rights supporters protest outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Credit: Valerie Plesch for NBC News.


Momma taught us to hang up our coats
tidy our rooms
and so we became familiar with them

Now that gang of robed men
and one godsmocked woman
remind us of the skills

we honed in the 60s then
abandoned when Roe freed us
to seek health care

in hospitals or clinics
where decisions
about our bodies

our lives
our futures
were ours

and we could safely
refuse to carry a doomed fetus
refuse to sink into poverty
refuse to empower rape and incest

now

untwist the sturdy wire
from its frame
squat, push it in

deep
scrape around
bleed

remember even 
their God still loves you
but they
don't give a damn


Anita S. Pulier’s chapbooks Perfect Diet, The Lovely Mundane, and Sounds of Morning and her books The Butcher's Diamond and Toast were published by Finishing Line Press. Anita’s poems have appeared in many journals and her work is included in nine print anthologies. Anita has been a featured poet on The Writer's Almanac.