by Ann E. Wallace
after Emily Dickinson
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| by C.B. |
Had my life but stood
a loaded gun, I might have
roamed these sovereign states
with ease and in the open.
But though this woman’s body
may live longer than its lover,
or its foe, it receives no such
constitutional protections.
We grant inalienable safeguards
to our guns, as to the men who
cock and press the sacred trigger
with force and as they please.
If I were indeed that loaded gun,
my liberty to choose, to carry
or to abort, would be a right
that is secured in perpetuity.
Ann E. Wallace is a poet and essayist from Jersey City, New Jersey. Follow her on Twitter @annwlace409 or on Instagram @annwallace409.