(a poem about abortion and the idiocy that is sweeping the western world at the moment.)
once
when we were strong
they came for us
and drove wedges in places they did not belong
penetrated our ranks with division
tore us apart
until we had learned to eat each other
cannibalize our neighbors’ children
in times of continuous war
competition overriding our hope
insatiable lust drinking our enemies’ blood
until a sisterhood was no more than
disparate similarities
plagued by lines of fracture
and performed discontent
but that was
only once
now
we have lost ourselves
into a mire of our own creation
taken our freedom for granted
and institutionalized our tiny differences
as if they were all that defined us
rather than our humanity
and our bodies melting together
as a single spirit
divine feminine energy flowing through us
making us not simply whole
but a whole world of compassion
empathy with and without childbirth
yet that family
is not simply dysfunctional
but deceased
and it is a path of our own making
a place we walked willingly
to slaughter our present
to take away our own power
to lust for things
at the cost of people
seeking abundance in the face of scarcity
because our lives mattered
and none others did
we have built isolation
now
today
they come for us together
and we have forgotten how to live
a community of sisters
hands held in chains
and faces raised to the sun
not screaming
but shining in the dawn
a force for unity
rather than divided animals
squabbling and isolated
as they mount an army
locked together in brotherhood
waiting to fix its bayonets
and drive them through the floors
of our bodies
and thrust themselves
against our shattered lines
no longer sated by lust
but the conquest of war
its spoils not in gold
but blood and rape
their goals not treasure
but our liberty
and this is the battle
we must not lose
today
tomorrow
we will look back at this moment
and see ourselves in a different light
divided and weak
while we claim to be so strong
because that strength we see
is individual
not collective
and we are staged against an army
with no fractured divisions
no broken strength
nothing to take brother from brother
in its devotion to our subjugation
making us the objects of their desire
rather than the partners of their love
as love has died between them
as we have killed it between ourselves
so we must walk away from that future
and hold hands
not because we feel the same
but because we have everything to lose
stop tearing down the statues
our neighbors have built of themselves
but start worshiping at the tortured feet
once bound but now free
of feminine beauty
shining yet curiously secret
in its hidden power
if we can only awaken it
and stand with our hands
not simply held together
but embracing each other by the shoulders
a community become a wall
no shouting can tear down
we can look back on this moment
and say we were all one
a single force
where nothing can ever be taken from us
not by force
and not by our own complacency
or popularity driving our desires
we have a single chance
to be proud of our sisterhood
before it is too late
and today’s lost war
is simply a relic
we study
and cry over
like those first sips
after birth
of spilled milk
drowning us
tomorrow