the midwife’s hollow

pain grows with the screams of her

ten-year-old patient

 

 

 

---

Rage Is

the doctor asking -his- permission

for my reproductive choice,

the interviewer asking why

a gap rips my resume in half,

the stranger glaring in the store

while glancing pointedly at my belly,

the doctor invading me without

consent because he’s on an artificial

schedule and society says it’s fine

    

---

I

pulled

crinkled

pages of

a stranger’s bible,

coated in endometrial

goo, from my vagina, the ink staining my fingers.

The smudged words, like ridiculous

aggrieved toddlers’ loud

tantrums, when

denied

lose

steam.

   

---

Obligation

As Hecate presides at the crossroads,

a guard and a guide in the Underworld,

the liminal illumination of every path,

I am the gate to life, the guard

and guide who will light the way

from birth into adulthood, or will

release the soul to seek beautiful

experiences in another, better life.

   

---

pro-birthers revealed:

vanilla misogynists

white supremacists

 

 

 

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