WHERE THE WHITE PEOPLE ARE: WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

by J. Bradley

Image source: Daily Kos

Feed yourself until you are thick,
as a strip mall. Tattoo your Tax ID
on your forearm, your neck.

Answer quickly when asked about
your EBITDA. Answer quickly
when asked about what was gained
from what was written off.

When you purchase your first Congressman,
we might begin to listen.


J. Bradley is the author of the graphic poetry collection, The Bones of Us (YesYes Books, 2014), with art by Adam Scott Mazer.

TIME TO PLAY OUR GAME

by Stephanie Sesic

Image source: Daily Kos

     (with apologies to Joe Raposo)

one of these things is not like the others
     the proud owners of glorious cocks
     beloved collections of parasitic cells
     corporations closely held as a clandestine lover
     cunts and the sluts who hoard them
one of these things just doesn’t belong
     you see men are only human
     the justice they invented embryonic
     while the money eats what it needs to grow
     from the body that belongs to anything but her


Author's note: Italicized lines are from theSesame Street song, "One of These Things," by Joe Raposo. 

Stephanie Sesic teaches English at Kent State University. Her work has appeared in various print and online publications, and her chapbook The Intimate Verge was published by Pudding House in 2008.

THE RULE OF LAW

by Lucille Gang Shulklapper

I am woman, where are men ?

On the Supreme Court, inside 100 foot buffer zones,

 in states where they enforce vaginal probes,

in Congress where they love my fetus,

but starve my child when she is born?

I am woman.  Where are men?

Here are black men who stand in long lines to vote ,

poor men who hunger on minimum wage,

lawless men who start wars with lies,

Congressmen who tie our president’s hands,

rap a gavel every three days, say the Senate

is at work, deny climate change, control

my body to let others counsel me,

but not counsel them.

Here are men,

In the Supreme Court,

ruling corporations are people

ruling women’s health rights

are not buffered in the

Divided States of America.

  

 I am woman.  Where are men?

I am woman.   Where is mankind?

Lucille Gang Shulklapper is a widely-published poet and fiction writer with work appearing in Slant, Consequence, Main Street Rag, and New Verse News among others, as well as four poetry chapbooks.  A new poetry chapbook and a picture book are forthcoming in 2014.