by Anita Pulier
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| 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.